Paying Recompense
by SpyroForLife
Summary: Dipper Pines just wants to continue his life as normally as possibly since the tragedy that took both the Mystery Shack and his great uncle, but will he be able to mend his relationship with Bill? And should he be worried about Gideon getting out of prison? Sequel to Payment in Blood, which you should read before reading this, as it picks right up from there with no explanation.
1. The Shack is Back

The Shack is Back

"Thank you for coming to the grand reopening of the Mystery Shack," the young man dressed in a sleek black suit announced from the podium that had been erected on the porch. He smiled at the cheering crowd, reaching up to quickly brush some of his hair back. It had been slicked up with gel so it was out of his face, and also gave him a more sophisticated look. This was a significant occasion, after all. He knew his birthmark would be in full view, but he didn't mind people seeing it. He was very confident in himself now, so there was no reason to hide it.

Next to him stood a tall man with dark skin, also dressed formally in a black tailcoat over a yellow shirt. He was even more formal, though; while the first had a red bolo tie on, the second man was wearing a black bow tie and top hat, and leaning on a cane that he likely didn't even need. He wasn't speaking, merely surveying the crowd with bold golden eyes that didn't seem natural, smiling serenely. No one missed that he had one hand resting on the other man's back. But with them being Gravity Falls latest power couple, no one cared.

"There are many people I would like to thank for making this possible. I would like to thank the Northwest family for helping me pay for the building to be rebuilt. I want to thank my family and friends for supporting me during those first... difficult weeks after the fire. I want to thank all of you for offering your sympathy and raising money to help us restock the shop and put together attractions for tours. And finally... I'd like to thank my great uncle, Stanley Pines, for entrusting care of this business to me. To honor him, I am dedicating the new Mystery Shack to him. Bill, if you would."

The taller man picked up a plaque from the podium and turned toward the doorway that led into the main museum floor, walking toward it. A blue magic surrounded the plaque, and he raised it slowly up toward the wall.

The crowd clapped and people took pictures. Bill had no reservations about using his magic in front of them; they knew by now just how supernatural this town was. They knew his partner was fully capable of magic as well. It just made the two of them even more popular.

When the plaque was raised high enough, it was carefully hung onto the nail that had been embedded over the door earlier. Then Bill returned to stand next to his partner, slinging an arm around his neck and continuing to smile.

The man, who was named Dipper, resumed addressing the crowd once they had quieted down and lowered their cameras. "In memory of Stanley Pines, I declare this Mystery Shack officially open once more. Please feel free to come in, our gift shop is open and I will be leading the first tour in twenty minutes. While waiting, you can look around at the many oddities we have in the store. Thank you."

He stepped back from the podium, posed with Bill for some final pictures, and then headed inside. Several people followed him in. Bill went to take his place behind the counter, and the handyman, Soos, soon came in to join them, tidying up a few things before heading back outside.

Dipper spoke to the guests while waiting for 8 AM, collecting the payments for the first tour, directing them to where they could donate money if they wished. Many offered him their condolences on the loss of his uncle, as well as how proud they were of him for continuing his work.

Finally the time came for the first tour, which was probably one of the largest the Shack has ever had. Dipper ended up having some of them stay behind and only going out with about twenty. He led them a short ways through the woods outside, where they could see supernatural creatures with their own eyes (mostly the jackalopes and a swarm of fairies) before taking them back to the Shack to see the things he had set up inside. He only allowed people to see harmless creatures, and sometimes even fake ones. Most tourists couldn't handle seeing the real horrors of the town.

It was a very busy day, which was surprising considering it was almost winter. But he knew that after the novelty of having the Shack back wore off, things would get very slow. But he didn't worry about it. He and Bill had other ways of making money. And there was always the online shop.

Dipper never really got a chance to sit down, until about halfway through the day, when he went to Bill and insisted, "Please take them on the next tour, I need a break."

The demon grinned at him, playfully reaching out to smack the strings of his tie around, before saying, "What's in it for me?"

"It'd be the fair thing to do, jerk."

"What makes you think I'm fair?"

Dipper glanced at the people in the shop, but none were really looking at him too closely, so he leaned close to the demon and whispered, "If you do it, I'll reward you later." He smiled seductively.

Bill's grin faded, eyes widening slightly. Then it was back, even more cocky than before, and he now had a small blush on his face. "You make a persuasive argument, Pine Tree. All right, I'll give you a break." He stood, and Dipper respectfully stepped back so he could come around the counter. The other leaned down to press a quick kiss to his lips, and then headed to the waiting group at the 'tour starts here' sign. He introduced himself to them, made sure they had all paid, and led them out.

With a sigh of relief, Dipper sank onto the stool behind the register, flexing his toes inside the uncomfortable shoes he was wearing. Just four more hours, he told himself. Then they could close up for the day.

He rang up orders for people while waiting for the tour to return, and whenever he got a free moment, would mentally check in on Bill through the link they shared. They didn't really use words; it was more like a brushing of their hands against each other, like a soft nuzzle. But it was enough to reassure them that the other was doing all right.

Then a new group came in, and Dipper had to go settle them down and find a way to entertain them while they waited for the next tour.

Finally, Bill came back with his group of tourists, setting them loose in the gift shop. They were talking excitedly, and grabbed plenty of items to bring to the counter.

"What did you show them?" Dipper asked Bill in wonder as the demon stood next to him, elbow on his shoulder.

"I happened to lead them past a Manotaur. I don't what he was doing this close to the Shack, but it was quite exciting. He posed for pictures, flexed a lot, took beef jerky from one of the guests and I saw him start bench pressing a log as we walked away."

"Hmm. I wonder why he came out here. Maybe I should go talk to him."

"Nah, he's gone now. I checked for him before we came inside, he must have gone home."

"Ah. All right. So, I guess you want me to do the next one, huh?"

"Well..." Bill brushed his nose against Dipper's cheek. "Maybe we could negotiate. Agree to do whatever I want you to tonight, and I'll agree to handle the rest of the tours today."

Dipper hesitated. That seemed like a great bargain, but... Bill was extremely dominating and could be intimidating when allowed to have total control over any situation. He muttered, "Last time I said I'd do anything you want, I wasn't able to get out of bed the next morning for like an hour. And then you had to carry me into the shower so I could get the wax and blood off me."

"Heh. Yeah, you were so cute that morning." Bill affectionately stroked his neck, which almost always had visible splotches on it from teeth. Dipper leaned away, but only because he had to take care of a customer. Once they were gone with their bag of merchandise, he responded to Bill.

"Look, I'll do it, just... go easy on me, all right?"

"Heh. You really expect a demon to go easy on you? You're deluded." Bill leaned down to kiss his neck, which still made Dipper shiver, despite how used to it he was. Bill just had a knack for finding right where he was most sensitive.

"Don't break anything," Dipper clarified. "And don't make me pass out from blood loss. Um... and I want to be able to get up in the morning. Besides that, do what you want."

Bill grinned. Dipper really did not like that look. The demon gave his rear a squeeze that made him jump, and walked over to speak to some tourists. Dipper rested his head in his hand. What has he agreed to?

* * *

"Thank you for coming to the grand opening!" the two owners of the Mystery Shack called as the last group of tourists headed out with their arms full of merchandise. They waved goodbye to each other, people got in their cars or buses, and left. Soon, it was only Dipper, Bill, and Soos left.

Soos was heading out almost immediately, though. "Melody went to see the doctor today and I want to make sure everything is all right."

"Two more months," Dipper said cheerfully.

He smiled. "Yeah, dude. Two more months." He waved before getting in his truck and driving away.

The moment they were alone, Bill grabbed Dipper by the arm and pulled him back inside. He closed the door, and then slammed the human roughly against the wall, kissing him deeply.

Dipper's back arched in response, pressing his body up against the other's as he kissed him back, moaning as the grip on his wrists tightened until it was painful. But he liked it like that.

Bill pulled his mouth back, and began nipping down Dipper's neck, purring into the skin just above his collar. "You look fantastic in these clothes. You need to wear suits more often."

"This is extremely uncomfortable though," Dipper replied. He tried to rub himself against the other better. "I can barely feel you through this material..."

Bill chuckled and raised his head, gently biting down on one of Dipper's earlobes and tugging on it. "Then how about you get out of it?"

Dipper blushed, and started to agree, only for Bill to continue, "And into some jeans and a jacket, we're collecting some payment tonight."

"Oh. Um... right. Okay." Dipper pulled his wrists free and rubbed them as the other stepped away from him. "And then?"

Bill laughed and reached over to cup between Dipper's legs, and he definitely felt that. "Then we have some fun."

Dipper swallowed, legs shaking. "All right. Yeah."

Bill took his hand away and walked out of the room. Dipper barely remembered to lock the door and flick the lights off before following him. They went upstairs to their room, and in no time had changed into much more casual clothing. Though Bill wouldn't want to hear it, Dipper thought he looked much better when he was wearing those skinny jeans and a black hooded jacket that cast his face into shadow when the hood was up. He usually couldn't resist leaning into it to kiss him.

Bill took a few moments to go to the bathroom and redo his make-up, and in that short time, somehow managed to add contours and highlights that made his face look even sharper, and would likely be terrifying in low light.

He returned to Dipper and gave him the details on where they were going and who they were looking for, and the human took his hand as they teleported there together. Upon arriving, they set about tracking the man down. Dipper was beyond the point where he wanted to know what their victims did; he simply found them and then did to them whatever Bill wanted. He knew that this man's name was Mike. Beyond that, he didn't care.

Mike didn't take long to find. He was walking outside, on his way to a club according to Bill, and wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings. So it was easy for the two of them to walk up behind him, seize his arms, and drag him into the alleyway between two buildings. They took him back until they reached a fence, at which point Dipper swept his leg out from under him and caused him to stumble onto his hands and knees.

By the time Mike was getting up, Dipper had taken out his best knife, its etchings glowing red as he put magic into it and swung it. Mike tried to jump back, but the blade caught him across the neck. Blood sprayed out and he yelled, one hand trying to cover the wound while the other threw a punch that managed to hit Bill in the chest. The demon responded by kicking him hard in the stomach, and as he doubled over in pain, Dipper went in with his knife again. He was inhumanly fast, cutting a deep gash across the front of Mike's throat. Blood poured out, cascading down his chest, and his eyes lost focus as he fell over.

Bill shoved him as he fell, and the moment Mike hit the ground, Dipper was bringing his heel down on the man's skull. As he had chosen to put on leather combat boots with thick soles, this had quite a satisfying result. He felt the bone crack underneath his boot and then give, as easily as stomping a fruit. He wasted no time in calling on his magic to wrestle the soul out. As usual, he split the energy with Bill. What used to be a horrible pain now filled him with ecstasy as he absorbed it, feeling fresh power surge through him. Souls just didn't hurt him like they used to. He was accustomed to it.

"Quick and brutal, I like it," Bill said as Dipper lifted his foot and put it on the ground, trying to wipe the blood and hair off it. "Why don't we get some energy from his blood as well?"

"Good idea." Dipper knelt down, passing his hands over the gash on Mike's neck, and the blood turned into a red mist that absorbed through his clothes and skin and into his very being. Bill crouched on the other side of the body, taking his share of the energy.

Once they had collected all they could, Bill leaned over to seize Dipper by the collar and drag him close, kissing him roughly. Once he had gotten the human flustered, he separated and grinned.

"Let's head back, Pine Tree."


	2. Talking It Out

Talking It Out

When Dipper woke up the next morning, he felt groggy and incredibly sore, a pained groan escaping him as he blinked. He just barely started to push himself up on an arm when his partner rolled to drape over him, pressing his lips against his neck.

"Good morning, love," Bill purred.

"Bill, I thought I told you that I wanted to be able to get up," Dipper complained, feeling his muscles protest as he shifted. He felt the familiar tug of scabs on his skin, and again wondered how Bill was able to leave such deep cuts with his nails being as trimmed as they were.

"You will be able to get up," the demon said coyly, nuzzling him. "Go on. Try."

"Hmph. I'm comfortable right here."

"The Shack needs to be open in two hours."

"Right... fuck. Okay." Dipper pushed his face back and turned, swinging his legs out of bed. He hesitated, then put his weight on them and stood. While there was pain from the motion, it wasn't so bad that he felt like collapsing. He took a few steps, and decided that he'll be able to get through the day like this. While up, he examined his arms, reading the several runes Bill had scratched into them with a knife last night. Sure, he had been nervous when the knife first came out, but the demon was very careful with it and in the heat of the moment, the pain had only added to the pleasure.

"Oh, do you like that?" Bill laughed, leaning over to look at the markings as well.

"Bill... is this..." Dipper held both arms together, reading it like that. He squinted. "What exactly did you write here? I think part of this is for pleasure only, but these other few symbols..."

"Don't worry about it. Some symbols are just random things I felt like writing. They don't really mean anything."

Dipper gave him a suspicious look. "Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure they mean something. I thought we agreed not to lie to each other."

"Oh come on, Pine Tree, I'm not lying."

"Because I'm fine with whatever it is. You know that, right? You can tell me the truth. I... we talked about this. After the fire, I found it very hard to trust you. I want to be able to trust you again, but I can't do it if you're doing sneaky things like this."

Bill raised his hands defensively, getting out of bed and walking around to stand in front of him. "Okay, sorry. You want to know, I'll tell you." He took hold of one of Dipper's wrists, pressing a finger to a rune. "This one was for strength to get through the pain." He moved to another. "This was to boost your confidence because you were starting to have doubts about the knife play. Let's see, this one... this is happiness. I dunno I thought it would be cute. And here... Hm, I think I did this one out of curiosity." He traced his finger along a larger mark in the crook of Dipper's elbow. "It's meant to help bond two people closer together. I don't have one on me so I don't think it worked, but... I think we're already quite close, don't you?"

Dipper lowered his arms, nodding a bit. "Yeah. I guess."

"You guess?" Bill frowned.

"Well... I'm still in your debt, I'll serve you for the rest of my life, just... being as close to you as I used to be, I don't think I'll be able to do it for a while."

"Pine Tree, we're already close, look how close we were last night!"

"That's physical. Emotionally..." Dipper closed his eyes and sighed, wrapping his arms loosely around himself. "I'm still a little upset with you."

Bill carefully touched his shoulder, and when he didn't pull away, gently hugged him. "I see. I don't think I need to ask why."

"No, you probably know why."

"Yes. I know. I know you aren't going to forgive me. But I was hoping things could go back to normal."

"Sometimes, I'm able to look at you and feel as much in love with you as I was before. But other times... like now... I just don't know if I can stand it. I feel like it's wrong for me to still love you."

"Emotion is complicated. Don't let it stress you out. You can't help how you feel, and I get that you're still going to be upset with me about the fire, but... you don't have to let it affect you so much. Just feel however you want to feel. It's okay. Really."

Dipper sighed again, slumping against him. "Sometimes I wish you could just make me forget. But we both saw what happens if you try to make someone forget something."

"Altering such a traumatic memory would be difficult anyway," Bill murmured. "Such a thing gets woven so closely into the rest of your being... it'd be like trying to remove a heart and all the blood vessels from a body without disturbing the rest of the system. Simply... impossible. You'll always have that memory, and I can't change that."

"It would make it better if you just... apologized," Dipper sniffed, and Bill's eyes widened slightly as he realized he was starting to cry.

"Pine Tree..." Bill pressed their foreheads together. "I've already told you that I'm sorry."

"No, you're sorry that I was miserable. You're sorry that for a while, I didn't want to be near you. You aren't sorry for killing him."

"I don't regret what I did, it was necessary. But I do regret all the pain it's caused you. Dipper, we've been through this, I can't change that it happened. Could I have handled it differently? Yes, I could have. And maybe I should have. But I didn't. I didn't, and Stan is dead. Deal with it."

Dipper pulled away from him. "I'm taking a shower."

"Want me to join you?"

"I'd rather you not."

"Right. Okay." Bill respectfully stepped back, heart clenching at the hurt look on the other's face before he turned and walked over to the closet, collecting some clothes before leaving the room.

Once the man was gone, Bill sank onto the bed and put his head in his hands. "Why did I have to start that damn fire...?"

* * *

The house had two bathrooms, but only the upstairs one had a shower, so Bill had to wait for Dipper to finish. When the human returned, he seemed to have calmed down, and even smiled at Bill as he poked his head in to let him know the bathroom was free. But he didn't linger, instead going downstairs to get things set up for the day.

Bill decided to wear something considerably less formal today. Just as Dipper was merely going with a blue collared shirt and darker blue trousers rather than the full suit of yesterday, the demon chose a white button-up with tan, almost yellow slacks, though of course he still grabbed a bow tie. His look just wasn't complete without one. Today's was gold!

After a quick shower, he spent some time fixing up his hair, examining the roots of the dyed part and thinking yet again that he needed to get it touched up because there was a good centimeter of black. He applied his eyeliner, making it winged today, pulling his bangs aside to get that eye and waiting a few moments for it to dry before letting the hair fall back down.

He flicked at his earrings, watched them glimmer in the light, and then backed away from the mirror a bit to just check himself out. He was pleased with his appearance. Like a modern Egyptian god. Actually, that wasn't too far from the truth.

Once done prettying himself up, Bill went downstairs to find Dipper. The human was already done tidying up, having used magic to do the job far quicker than his hands could have. Bill smiled in approval and leaned down for a kiss, but didn't push it; he'd let the other come to him. To his relief, Dipper closed the distance, and he decided that things must be okay again. Those moods usually didn't last, but they still always made Bill anxious.

"What's for breakfast?" Dipper asked once he separated.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because it's your turn to cook."

"Is it? I don't remember agreeing to this."

"I cooked yesterday morning, remember? And it was a lot too, since we wanted to have enough energy to get through the grand reopening."

"...Oh yeah. But I helped."

"You didn't help me, you stood next to the stove tasting the bacon to see if it was done yet. And then you broke an egg into one of the burners."

Bill laughed as he pulled away. "Okay I'll make us breakfast this time, then. Let's see, the Shack doesn't open for an hour and a half... Great, how does French toast sound?"

"I love French toast."

"Good, because that's what you're getting."

They went into the kitchen, and Dipper watched as the demon gathered up the ingredients. It wasn't that Bill couldn't cook; on the contrary, he was quite excellent at it. He was decent at many things, with the centuries of life behind him. He had knowledge on everything from cooking to hunting to scuba diving. Almost any trade, he knew something about. So Dipper didn't need to supervise his cooking. In the end, whatever he made would be delicious. No, what he was supervising was how careless the other was.

"If you waste another egg I'm gonna kill you," Dipper warned as Bill began mixing egg, vanilla, and cinnamon into a container.

"Relax, Pine Tree, I'm being careful," Bill assured him. Sure enough, the contents of the single egg went neatly into the bowl. Then he added milk and stirred. Once he had a smooth mixture, he took out some bread and began dipping the pieces in, coating them evenly before transferring them to a skillet.

"Did you grease that?" Dipper asked.

Bill paused, then sighed and took down a can of vegetable oil, lifting the pieces of bread so he could spray down the pan. Once it was coated, he returned to preparing the French toast.

He made four large pieces, which he would split in half for a total of eight once done. That seemed fair.

Dipper went to take out the syrup while they cooked, and brewed cups of coffee for himself and Bill. He made Bill's just the way he liked it; full of sugar and way more cinnamon than necessary.

The demon had a thing for cinnamon.

It took only about five minutes for the food to be done, and Bill sliced the pieces so they each had four. They grabbed some fresh fruit to go with it and returned to the table. They discussed plans for the day while eating, Dipper considering putting out some new items while Bill told him how bored he was going to be stuck in the office, since Melody would be here to work the register today.

"Well, you can take care of making sure our shelves stay fully stocked and neat," Dipper replied. "Instead of making the pregnant lady get up to fix it, you can do it. You know how the kids love to mess up the merchandise."

"Ugh, do I ever. Yeah, I guess I could waste some time doing that..."

"But finances are important, as is making sure we're meeting the demand with supplies. Don't wait until we run out of something to order more, keep items on order, etcetera..."

"Business is annoying," Bill grumbled.

"I know. But I think the least we can do for Stan is keep the Shack open. I'll put up with any inconvenience it gives me. Hey, are you interested in maybe doing magic shows?"

Bill paused, giving him a scrutinizing look. Some syrup rolled down the side of his mouth and Dipper had to resist the urge to lean over and lick it off. Then Bill licked it off himself and said, "Magic shows?"

"Yeah, like... go back and forth. Do a tour, then the next hour, have a magic show, next hour, another tour. Might be a little more bearable. One person can chill while the other person is doing theirs. Imagine the money we could bring in if people knew they could come watch real magic."

"Hm. I'd have to be careful about it... we get a lot of tourists, they're not from around here, they expect it all to be fake. If they figure out I'm doing real magic, and spread it around... that could cause unwanted attention."

"So then be careful. Do it in ways that could be illusions... just, we know they aren't."

Bill considered it, then smiled and nodded. "That'd be fun. People would pay a lot for that... and we have that empty show room where I can do it... Okay, fine. I'll put some acts together and I can start tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? No, you can hold off until next Monday. Figure out your routines, I'll post about it on our website and social media, let people know about it, and then you can start."

"Ooh, good idea. Heh, I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you." Bill slid his hand under Dipper's chin. "You're so clever."

Dipper leaned into the touch, smiling at the compliment, but as usual, the hesitance to let the other touch him set in, and he leaned back, focusing instead on his food. Bill let his hand drop, returning it to his fork. One day, he assured himself as he resumed eating. Pine Tree was still just going through the stages of grief. He had gone through denial within seconds, as the fire was still blazing and it was undeniable. Then had come the anger, which had quickly been replaced with bargaining, as he had pleaded with Bill to do anything, and for a while, the demon could have acted and stopped everything. But he hadn't. And then he had entered into depression.

He was still lingering somewhere between depression and acceptance, has been for months. He just couldn't bring himself to move on completely. He acknowledged what had happened, but accepting it was still difficult for him.

Bill didn't try to rush him, knowing that would only make the other mad at him. He had to let him grieve and get over it. Maybe he won't ever completely 'get over it.' But he could hope.

He could always hope their relationship could be mended and returned to what it was before.


	3. Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Things slowly returned to normal with the reopening of the Mystery Shack. For the rest of the week, Dipper and Bill alternated with leading tours while the other took care of things inside the Shack itself, each day finding something new to put out for their fascinated visitors. And at the end of the day they would close up shop, spend some time relaxing, and then head out to collect payments for Bill.

Bill was happy to see that Dipper seemed to do this with enjoyment. When he first started this again after Stan's funeral, he hadn't savored it much, just doing what needed to be done and then moving on. But now he was taking his time. Tormenting their victims. Making them fear for their lives before letting them go or killing them, depending on Bill's mood and what they owed. Laughing as the light left their eyes and licking the blood from his gloved fingers. Bill would never get tired of that.

But the number of people for them to go after was actually dwindling, and during the weekend, Bill decided to do something new.

"Kill useless people?" Dipper asked in disbelief. "Now what... what do you define as useless? Because if this is about... about physically or mentally handicapped people, then there is no way in hell-"

"Oh, heavens no," Bill replied with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Listen, you have a sense of justice, right? Sure, it's nice to take care of people who have lied to me, but kid... why stop there? We can go after criminals, you know. Murderers who have walked free. Rapists. Child molesters. We can kill those people! Imagine the good it will do for the world!"

Dipper chuckled. "Bill... we're murderers. Wouldn't that be kinda hypocritical?"

"We have reasons for what we're doing. Good reasons. We don't just kill because we want to. Our victims always deserve it, right?"

"I... I guess."

Bill pressed on, discretely extending his magic into the other, prodding at his thoughts. Not enough to be noticed, but just enough to shift his perspective. Perhaps make him more... agreeable. "So someone goes out and decides to knife a bunch of people he doesn't even know and take their money. That person is never caught, or if caught, isn't able to be convicted because of lack of evidence or some other bullshit reason. So. We track them down ourselves and do what the justice system failed to do. Doesn't it sound like fun? Maybe we can even leave a signature of some sort. Like... notes. Burnt into paper, no DNA evidence, as usual."

"Yeah..." Dipper said slowly, then agreed. "Yeah, that'd be fun! We can... we can write about the person's crime and why they died! Let people know that we're taking down criminals, make them afraid! I'm totally down with that!"

Bill took his hands, thrilled to see him getting excited. It was always great to see his Pine Tree happy. He hoped this would bring them closer together. He wanted that. Dipper has already become more loving with him, more like he was before, and Bill really did not want to ruin it.

Dipper squeezed Bill's hands, smiling, and Bill's heart leapt at seeing trust in those brown eyes once more. He couldn't lose this. He had to keep the other happy with him; don't let him find a reason to sulk. If keeping Dipper from being upset with him meant doing things to keep him busy, then so be it.

Bill swung the other around in a circle, lifting him off the ground as he did, and then into his arms, nuzzling his face.

Dipper laughed and rubbed his nose back against him, feeling the usual swell of affection he got when the demon did such surprisingly cute things. And then there was that other feeling that had become common, that feeling of guilt, which he has felt at least once a day for months... but he was the one in control of his own emotions, right? He could feel however he wanted to feel, and he didn't want to keep pushing his partner away. It was satisfying to do for a moment, but then he went back to the demon. He would always go back to him, because he still loved him and didn't want to hurt him. Yes, Bill has hurt him, but... it was in the past. Maybe it was time to let go. So he met Bill's eyes, opening his mind and letting the other know that he wasn't going to let himself feel guilty anymore.

Understanding without words, Bill leaned in to kiss him, and Dipper sighed as he felt those worries melt away. No doubt that was the demon's mental influence. Even now, the other tampered with his emotions. Not blatantly, but in small amounts. Little pokes here and there, settling strong negative feelings, encouraging happiness and trust. Dipper was used to it by now. He knew that Bill was only doing it to try and keep him in the best possible mental state. Even if the adjustments he made seemed manipulative at times... but he'd have to trust Bill. That's what this always came back to. Trust. They had agreed to this long ago, after all.

"Do you want to head out?" Bill asked softly. "I can think of a gang member from a nearby city who's coming here tonight to make some deals... we can catch him and destroy him, how's that sound?"

Dipper nodded, his mixed feelings fading as he instead felt that excitement that came in anticipation for a kill. "I think that'd be fun."

"You think so? All right. We're not gonna leave right away. We're going to go upstairs and I'm going to show you a news article about him on the Internet, so you'll know what exactly he did and who to look for."

"Good idea." Dipper followed him back to their room, and after a few minutes of research, he was more than ready to kill the man. Jason Gray was the name, kidnapping and assaulting was the game. He wasn't the leader of a gang, but he was confirmed to be in one and was one of the most troublesome members, hazing newcomers, seizing random people and hauling them to unknown locations to be brutalized by the other gang members and himself before dumping them back into the streets, and many other atrocities. There wasn't a clear picture, but he has apparently been identified, he was just difficult to capture because he was no longer living at a set address that anyone knew of. It was believed that he was avoiding police by staying at a different location during the day and going out to do his business at night, always returning to a new place once done.

"What a prick," Bill commented. "Look at the deaths to his name. All innocent people... mostly. Despicable."

"I want to kill him. I want to kill him in the same way he killed his victims."

"Hmm..." Bill clicked through some pages. "Apparently that would be by... strangulation. After he broke their jaws apart by curb stomping them. Ew, look at these photos. Oh man, the broken teeth, delightful."

"He curb stomped people?" Dipper looked at the pictures, skimming over the accompanying article, before nodding decisively and pulling his jacket off the back of the computer chair, slipping it on. "Well then, I know how I'm going to kill him."

Bill closed out of the Internet browser and shut the lid of the laptop, smirking. "I can't wait to see you give him a taste of his own medicine. Good to see you so determined, Pine Tree."

"Yeah, well... I figured I should show a little more enthusiasm. I miss the old days, you know?"

"Oh, as do I." Bill finished pulling his own coat on, tossing the hood up over his head. "Well, if you know where you're going, lead the way." He took Dipper's hand as they teleported into town.

They shivered upon arriving; it was a cold day and the wind was blowing. And it would only get colder. It was currently September; by the time October arrived, it'll probably be time for snuggling into blankets in front of a fireplace and never leaving the house.

Bill took the lead, Dipper following him through the quiet streets. Gravity Falls wasn't a very large town, with only a few places that could be called shady, so he wasn't sure where a gang member could go to talk to people in private. He figured near the bar, but there were street lamps and plenty of other buildings, so he wasn't sure if they would be able to curb stomp Jason once they got him.

Hearing his thoughts, Bill responded, _I can influence people to stay away from the area. We can try to do it quickly too. Curb stomp him, let him suffer for a few moments, slit his throat. And we can leave a message._

 _All right. Sounds good._

Sure enough, Bill led him to the bar. It was fairly crowded, people constantly coming in and out, but Bill's eyes glowed and they just kinda stopped. No one walked out or even seemed to come near a window, and the street seemed to empty out until no one was walking down it.

 _I can't maintain this for long, I've distracted everyone in different ways, but eventually someone will decide they don't care and just walk through anyway. Our guy is right there, by the way._

Dipper looked over and saw a man with a shaved head loitering between the bar and the building next to it. He was smoking a cigarette and looking at his phone. Dirty jeans, a dark red shirt, a stud in each ear. A brown goatee. And his resemblance to the man in the blurry photos online was close enough that Dipper was convinced.

 _That's Jason?_ he asked Bill just to confirm.

 _Definitely. Go on, Pine Tree, teach him a lesson._

Dipper knew there were no cameras around here, so he pulled his hood back as he marched up to Jason. The man lowered his phone as he approached, looking bored.

"You're the kid that Tiger sent? Shit he just keeps lowering his standards doesn't-"

Dipper's fist clocked him in the side of the face. Jason stumbled back, quickly shoving his phone into his pocket and punching Dipper in the gut, knocking the breath out of him. Dipper grit his teeth and straightened up, blocking the next hit with his arm and striking the other's face again. They spent a few moments trading blows, Dipper blocking most of Jason's while his own hits almost always landed. He knew the other had a knife, could see him trying to lower a hand to get it, but Dipper kept him too busy to reach it.

While the older man was focused on the punches, slowly starting to block more, Dipper swept his legs out from under him and gave him a shove that made him fall hard on his back, head hitting the wall behind him.

Bill walked over to watch, but he couldn't participate without breaking his concentration. He had to trust that Dipper could take care of this on his own.

Jason was dazed for a few moments, but it was obvious he's been in his share of fights; he took advantage of the fall to reach into his pocket without Dipper being able to stop him, grabbing his knife and slashing at the other's leg. Dipper jumped back, and it briefly snagged on the fabric before tearing loose.

Dipper kicked his hand, knocking the knife from it, and then jumped down to wrestle with the other, until he got him pinned, one hand shoving his face into the dirt and the other holding his wrists behind his back.

"Who the fuck are you?" Jason demanded as he struggled, finding that the person on top of him was even stronger than he had thought.

"Name's not important. All you need to know is that I'm here to kill you."

"You think you're the first person who's tried to kill me? You won't be able to pull it off, shithead!"

"Oh, won't I? Need I remind you that I was beating you to a pulp earlier? That I just wrestled you into submission? What makes you think you're walking out of here alive?"

"I don't even know you, are you... are you like a hitman or something? Who put the hit out on me? Was it Cobra? Man, fuck Cobra!"

"I don't know a Cobra. No, I'm doing this on my own. I've read about you online. You're a wanted murderer. You've killed and assaulted so many people, you and the rest of your gang, which I'll take care of in time. I just decided to go after you first... you are the most troublesome."

"What're you, some kind of vigilante fuck?"

"Heh. Vigilante." Dipper lifted his hand from the back of Jason's head, taking out his knife so he could dig it into the other's back. "I like the sound of that. I guess I am."

"Motherfucker, you're what, seventeen?" Jason struggled harder, legs kicking at the ground as he tried to get up, but Dipper merely shifted his weight and pressed him harder into the ground. "I could lift you in one hand, how are you holding me down?!"

"Magic," Dipper replied casually. Bill snorted.

"You think I believe that shit about this place having magic? You're all a bunch of nutjobs, I know you aren't going to kill me, you're probably still in high school!"

Dipper pressed the blade harder into the other, cutting through his shirt and digging into the skin underneath. "I'm nineteen, actually, and quite a successful business owner. And I'm going to kill you." He stood, hauling Jason up with him and pressing the knife to his throat. "You're going to walk forward. Move."

The man scowled and cussed at him, but with the knife digging into his throat, he decided to walk forward. "How'd you get a knife this sharp?"

"Well I'm gonna kill you, I guess I can tell you my secrets. It's enchanted. It will never dull, and it can cut through almost anything. Well, anything on a human. Skin, muscle, bone... whatever I need to cut. As you're going to find out fairly soon. Come on, keep moving." Dipper slammed his knee hard into the other's back, making him groan with pain. "Out onto the sidewalk. Now down, onto the road, and turn around..." Dipper yanked harshly on his arms as he turned him. "Now on your knees."

Jason slowly got down, glancing around, seemingly unnerved by the lack of people. "Where is everyone?"

"There will be no witnesses to this. Me and my partner are excellent with magic. We're keeping people away."

"I don't believe that."

"You don't need to. Now, this is familiar, isn't it? You should know where this is going. Lay down, on your stomach."

The man's hardened expression began to flicker, betraying worry as Dipper roughly pushed him down, moving the knife away but keeping a tight grip on his wrists. "Wait, what are you..."

"Scoot forward. A little more... okay there. Now open your mouth and bite the curb. Top teeth over the edge."

"No way in fuck, man! No way!"

"Bill, hold his arms."

Bill came over and knelt down, holding Jason's arms in place while Dipper roughly grabbed his jaw.

"You're going to do it, unless you want me to force you? Do you comprehend things better when I say 'fuck'? Open your fucking mouth."

Knowing now exactly what was going to happen, real terror showed on the other's face, but his jaw went slack, at least enough for Dipper to force it open and shove his head down against the concrete, his upper teeth on top of the curb. Dipper placed his foot on the back of his head to hold it in place, looking at Bill.

"Do we have time?"

"Yes, I can hold on for a few more seconds. Do it quick."

Dipper lifted his foot, and as the man whimpered, he almost felt bad. Almost, until he remembered the horrible things he has done over the past years, and how it probably hasn't even been a full day since Jason was doing this to someone else. Really, he deserved any suffering he was given. So Dipper brushed that natural human concern for others aside, watched the other tremble for a few moments, and then brought his heel down into the back of the gang member's head.

There was a horrific series of crunching as teeth were forcibly snapped out, the jaws themselves seeming to crack and dislocate, and the moment he lifted his foot, the other screamed and forced his head up, blood pouring from his mouth along with chunks of tooth and skin.

Jason's eyes were squeezed shut as he yelled, and the other two quickly grabbed him and dragged him back into the alleyway, while he was in too much agony to really fight back. They threw him carelessly onto the ground, Bill finally releasing his magic and allowing people to resume moving about normally, and Dipper knelt down over Jason with his knife.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" he whispered as the man covered his mouth with both hands, feeling his gums and the remaining fragments of teeth, tears streaking his cheeks. "Should have thought about that before you did it to other people. Now think about how much this hurts before I kill you."

"Want me to write the note? Someone will probably be coming by here soon," Bill said.

"Just like... carve it into the dirt."

"Got it." Bill knelt down and began writing into the ground with his magic, and Dipper twirled his knife around. The moment Jason opened an eye, he brought the knife straight down into his heart. The enchanted metal sapped his life immediately, returning it to Dipper in the form of strength, at the same time allowing him to more easily sever the soul and claim it. When he was done acquiring his half of the energy, he passed the rest to Bill, and then turned to see what he was writing.

A startled shriek outside the bar got both of their attentions, and they whipped around to see a young woman and a man who was likely her boyfriend leaning down next to the curb, staring at the teeth and blood scattered there. Dipper saw the blood trail leading back to himself first, and then the couple followed it back.

"Bill," he said urgently, grabbing Bill's wrist.

"Want me to finish the note or-"

"Did you just kill that guy?" the unfamiliar man asked, and the couple stared at them, incomprehension in their eyes, and Dipper could only hope they were too drunk to see clearly as he hastily pulled his hood back up and turned his face away.

"What do you have already?" he said to Bill.

"Reason of death was for being a gang member... that's about it."

"Good enough, let's get out of here."

They wasted no time in teleporting back home as the woman screamed.


	4. Dance, Magic Dance

Dance Magic Dance

Dipper became very invested in his new vigilante mission over the weekend. Tracking down the scum of the Earth and killing them was very satisfying. He even made a journal for the purpose of keeping track of who he has eliminated.

It made his weekend fly by, and soon it was Monday again. Bill had routines planned for magic shows, and proudly donned a bright yellow tailcoat, along with a black top hat and bow tie, which was highly reminiscent of his demon form. That was probably on purpose.

Dipper had to admit, he looked great in it, though. He ran his hands along the sleek fabric over Bill's shoulders as he leaned up to kiss him and wish him luck, promising that he would stop by to see the shows whenever he could.

"Do I look like a magician?" Bill asked, giving a small twirl. The glittery gold cape he was wearing flared out around him as he did. Dipper couldn't help but wonder where he even got that thing.

"Heh, Bill..." Dipper pressed a kiss to his cheek. "With that fierce eyeliner, you look like a sorcerer."

"Good." Bill pulled away from him. "I'm gonna go get things set up. Good luck with the next tour."

"Thanks."

Bill went down the hall, and Dipper headed for the gift shop. He greeted Melody, who was talking to Soos while waiting for the Shack to open. She waved him over.

"Dipper, check it out!" She put her hands on her round belly. "She's kicking!"

Dipper usually had zero interest in feeling it whenever a pregnant woman announced that her baby was kicking. But he liked Melody, so he was curious. He walked over, hand hovering hesitantly over her stomach.

"Go ahead, right here." She took his hand and pulled it down onto the bump.

He swallowed, pressing a little more firmly as he stood still, waiting expectantly. Then there was a small impact against his palm, and he looked up to see Melody beaming.

"Did you feel that?"

"Yeah, I did," he replied, lifting his hand so Soos could feel. "She's gonna be a handful."

"Oh, I know... I hope we can keep up with her."

"She won't be walking for a while," Dipper reminded them. "By then, you'll probably be used to running around."

They laughed, and Dipper checked his watch before going over to flip the sign to Open. The first tour started in ten minutes, but there was no one outside yet. Wondering if the novelty has worn off already, he returned to the counter. He didn't blame people for not wanting to come out here, really. It was pretty cold today. And it was probably gonna start raining too.

However, a few people came in at the last minute, and he went to welcome them. They looked around and then asked him about the magic show.

"Well, the first show is at nine. But in the meantime, I could take you guys on a tour."

"Does that cost extra?" one asked.

"Um..." Dipper had to do some math. "You can pay for both a tour and a show together, and it's cheaper than doing it separately... or you can just pay for the show and wait for it I guess. Just the magic show is $15 plus tax, and then if you want the tour before it'll be $30. A tour alone is $20. So you save five dollars."

"Well, we're already here I guess," one of the other guests said, and dug out their wallet.

Dipper directed them to Melody, who took their debit cards and got tickets for them. Soos went ahead and left for his daily chores as Dipper led the tourists out.

They were politely interested in everything he showed them, but he could tell they were looking forward to seeing "Mr. Cipher's Magical Mysteries" (the name made Dipper roll his eyes hard but it got people's attention).

He was glad to drop the group off back inside, only to find that more visitors had shown up while he was out, all buying tickets to see the show.

"Damn, Bill already has enough of an ego problem," Dipper muttered to Melody, who giggled. "When he sees how many people want to see him, he's gonna get a god complex."

"Pretty sure he already has one," she replied.

"This is gonna exacerbate it." Dipper sighed, and then addressed the visitors. "All right, everyone who wants to see Mr. Cipher? Follow me." He led them outside and around to the entrance to the large exhibit room, and began checking people's tickets as he let them in. He smiled as he heard his partner enthusiastically greet them. This was Bill's element, really. The demon loved being the center of attention.

Once everyone was inside and seated, Dipper glanced in to watch. It wouldn't be time to start for a few minutes, so Bill was simply pacing in front of the curtain he had hung between two poles, set up in front of the stairs that led to the rest of the house. He wanted a stage, which Dipper promised they'd install once they got some more money. For now, the curtain worked to hide things until they were needed.

"Pine Tree, are you gonna stay and watch?" Bill asked as he fiddled with the snow white gloves he was wearing.

Dipper shrugged. "If there's no one out front, then yeah, I can stay."

"No one except people coming to see me," Bill replied.

At that moment, Dipper had to turn around to check someone's ticket before letting them in, to the awe of the audience, who clapped. Dipper shared an amused thought with Bill. _People are so easily entertained._

 _I know, right?_ the demon agreed. _Oh, nine o'clock. Show time._

Bill dramatically spread his arms and said, "Welcome to Mr. Cipher's Magical Mysteries! Thank you for attending my very first show here at the Mystery Shack! I hope you are looking to be amazed, because I am here to amaze you!" Wringing his hands, he separated them, his cane materializing beneath his fingers. He grasped it and gave it a swing. "Let's start the show off with something simple! Something fun for the kids, shall we?" He removed his hat as a table rolled out from behind the curtain. He first showed everyone the inside of the hat, then set it on the table, brim up.

Dipper knew what he was going to do already, able to hear Bill's thoughts through their link, but he continued to watch anyway. He didn't have anything better to do, and he wanted to support the other.

Bill tapped the hat with the curved end of his cane, said some nonsense words, and stepped back. A bunny popped its head up over the brim of the hat, nose twitching. Children cheered and cooed, and the older guests clapped politely. Couldn't go wrong with the classics.

The bunny hopped out of the hat and stood on the table, and Bill reached into the hat with his hand. He groped around for a while, pushing his entire arm in up to the shoulder, which caused some gasping. Everyone could clearly see under the table, yet the rest of his arm was nowhere to be seen.

 _Pocket dimensions, nice,_ Dipper thought.

Bill straightened up, removing his arm, now grasping the neck of a snake. A very long snake. A snake so long that he actually started backing up, pulling a few feet of reptile out of the hat before the end of the tail finally emerged. Once it was free, he draped the snake around his shoulders like a fashion accessory and posed, grinning as people took photos. There was cheering from the adults now.

Dipper could hear several wondering how Bill had done that. He could already tell this was going to be a great source of income. And Bill seemed to be having fun with it as well.

He left as Bill was transforming the snake into a glittery rope, going back around the Shack to check on the gift shop. There was no one except a few stragglers to the show, which he caught and checked for tickets before directing them on where to go. But no one else seemed to be waiting for a tour right now.

"Bill's pretty popular already," Melody commented, phone out. "I'm reading about what he's doing by someone who's live tweeting pictures Oh here's a good comment. #HotAndTalented and a bunch of x's and o's. Here's one who replied with a kissy face emoticon. Dipper, you better go let them know your man is taken."

"I don't care, let them dream. Even if someone tried to flirt, he'd turn them down. I don't need to worry about it." Dipper leaned against the counter, crossing his arms.

Melody prodded his cheek. "I know how jealous you get," she sang.

"Damn it, I know." Dipper uncrossed his arms. "Okay I'm gonna go catch the rest of the show."

"He's not gonna leave you for some random tourist, calm down," she called after him as he headed back for the door.

He entered the show room as Bill was doing a card trick of some sort while a young kid held another card excitedly. He shuffled them for much longer than necessary and gave them a few showy flips, before saying, "Is this your card?" and pulling one out seemingly at random.

The kid checked the card they were holding, then squealed and bounced up and down, nodding. Bill grinned and said, "Go ahead and sit down, thank you. No, you can keep that."

Dipper walked closer to watch as the kid ran to sit down. Bill noticed him, giving him a wink before continuing with his act. It was all fairly standard for a magic show, everything could probably be explained as tricks despite how Dipper knew Bill was doing it for real, but it was enjoyable to watch anyway.

And then they got to the end, when Bill called Dipper over for the grand finale. As soon as Dipper was close enough, the demon took his hand and spun him around, and for a few seconds, the two waltzed together, laughing and twirling. Then Dipper looked down to see that their feet had left the ground and they were dancing in the air. He looked up and met Bill's eyes, grinning as he took the lead, adding his own magic to help keep them levitating. As he turned the other around in a circle, his gold magic swirled softly around them, and a moment later, Bill allowed his magic to become visible as well, blue joining the gold.

Their audience was captivated, and several phones and cameras were up taking pictures and recording, but they didn't mind. Right now, they only had eyes for each other.

Eventually, they stopped, and Bill let go of Dipper's hand as the human stepped backward, still a few inches off the ground. Dipper bowed politely, and Bill curtsied, their feet finally returning to the floor.

As the crowd went wild with applause, Bill tugged the other over for a kiss. "We need to dance together more often," he murmured to him.

Dipper chuckled and rested his forehead against Bill's. "Yeah, we do," he agreed.


	5. Unlucky Star

Unlucky Star

Bill's magic shows were a huge hit. With the cold weather setting in, people especially wanted to just sit down in a warm room and enjoy the entertainment, rather than walking around outside through the woods.

The show room had a fireplace, which Dipper kept roaring with dazzling purple flames that were a big hit with the guests. Many a picture has been taken in front of them.

Bill got Dipper more and more involved in his routines over time, until the human himself was donning fabulous outfits and joining him with enthusiasm, and the two bounced jokes and magic off each other with no hesitation, doing things that seemed impossible, and were soon the talk of the town, and then the entire northwest and a good portion of the Internet.

It wasn't long before their shows were attended by critics, people who claimed to be able to explain any trick, and every single one walked out baffled. Sometimes they would stay behind to try and get secrets out of the two, but they refused to tell. But they usually gave such people bouquets of flowers for their efforts.

Interest in tours actually picked up slightly, as people wanted to support the business more, and Dipper got Mabel's help in designing merchandise that better reflected the new direction the Mystery Shack was taking. She was more than happy to help, even giving him a discount. And the t-shirts she created were fantastic. As were the posters, mugs, and key-chains. Dipper really didn't know why she was even bothering to attend college. Her graphic design skills were already flawless. But college degrees made a person more credible, so she was doing it for the sake of career progression. He could understand that.

Dipper found that he and Bill were really starting to bond again. Yes, he would always have his dislike for what he did, but it was something he could just leave in a corner of his thoughts and not focus on. He was still in love with Bill and he wanted to be with him, he enjoyed working with him, whether they were performing tricks or stabbing criminals and deal breakers, he desired the demon's company. And that was okay. It was really okay, he had accepted what happened months ago. Things were good now. He was staying busy, having fun, making good money, and generally enjoying life. There were always new things to learn, Bill was still teaching him new magical concepts, he was always improving, and there were the nights they would spend wrapped up in each other... There were so many good things he could think about, and he chose to think about them. Leave the past where it belongs. If not for Bill, then for himself, because he didn't need the stress and sadness anymore. Grunkle Stan wouldn't have wanted him to be miserable.

Bill was happy with Dipper's recovery. He wasn't expecting true forgiveness, but seeing the other accept what happened made him feel better. He liked seeing Pine Tree smile and laugh. He liked the energy the other had when they performed, or when they practiced magic together, or when they went out to make a kill. It was all beautiful, and he made sure he always told Dipper how much he liked seeing him like that. It seemed to reassure the human.

This sweeter side of their relationship was not shown when they went out for blood, however. To the people they tracked down, they were cruel, merciless, sadistic. They took savage pleasure in beating people down, cutting into them, making them beg for their lives before finally killing them and stealing their souls. All their victims saw before dying were two young men in hooded jackets laughing with glee as they delivered the finishing blows with their weapons of choice. And if Dipper and Bill thought their previous activity was noticeable, then the media was definitely seeing a trend here. Every single note they left, no matter how obscure, was picked up and read and passed around and over-analyzed on the Internet, and by the start of October, it seemed the whole world knew something, or some _one,_ was delivering their own brand of vigilante justice.

"If I wasn't involved in it, I would think it was funny," Dipper commented as he read the Saturday newspaper, drinking coffee. His feet were propped up on the kitchen table and a plate sat nearby with toast and it was really, sickeningly domestic. He kinda liked it though. Especially since Bill had scooted a chair next to him and was currently leaning against him, arm around him as he also read the paper. One of his legs was thrown over Dipper's just for the heck of it.

"Police can find zero evidence, only able to work with rumors and vague descriptions from people that happen to glance at us before we leave," Bill summarized. "They can't get us. They just can't, and they never will."

Dipper nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we're untraceable."

Bill rested his head against Dipper's shoulder, content to just touch him without being pushed away. He didn't admit it out loud, but sometimes, he liked to just relax and sit still. Even demons needed peace every once in a while. Besides, he had kicked someone really hard last night and his foot still kinda hurt, and not really in a good way, so he didn't mind staying off it.

As Dipper was finishing his coffee (Bill was on his second mug), they heard the sound of an engine revving outside. Bill lifted his head and Dipper sighed, setting the newspaper aside and getting up. "Probably just another tourist who didn't check what days we're open... I can get this one." He went over to the kitchen window, but whoever it was wasn't parked on this side of the house.

"They're over on the gift shop side," Bill said.

They headed for the door that led into the gift shop. They were walking through the living room when they heard the doorknob rattle, and began running, Dipper taking out his knife. They pushed the door open and rushed into the shop, just in time for the outside door to click and open. Dipper almost had the intruder at knife point before he realized who it was and quickly recoiled.

"Why, Dipper Pines, how wonderful it is to see you again," drawled Gideon Gleeful.

Dipper recovered from his shock, clutching his knife tighter and scowling at the other. Gideon was seventeen now, if his memory served correctly, and he was huge. Only about five feet tall, but he had thick arms, a big belly, and wide shoulders. His white hair was still as immaculately styled as ever, skin noticeably tanned and more freckly, and his icy blue eyes had noticeable stress lines under them despite how he was smiling.

He was wearing an unzipped leather jacket covered in random patches, and underneath it was a baby blue collared shirt. His pants were faded and black, rings adorned his fingers, and he seemed to have something tattooed across his knuckles that Dipper couldn't quite make out.

"Hey, Gideon," Dipper said cautiously, aware of Bill standing protectively next to him, one hand on hi lower back and the other clenched into a fist. "How are you?"

"Oh, I've been just wonderful! Finally got out of prison a few days ago! Figured I'd stop by to see how my favorite family was doing." Gideon scuffed his shoe against the floor. "I heard this place burned down during the summer."

"Yeah. Electric fire."

"Unfortunate. And we lost our dear Stanford, didn't we?"

Dipper swallowed. "Y-yes."

"How sad. Well, at least you're here to continue the business. How about my sweet Mabel, is she living here?"

Dipper felt Bill's fingers contract, and answered, "No. She's going to college back in California. And she's dating Pacifica."

"Northwest?" That seemed to throw Gideon off. He stared at Dipper, then hastily tried to calm his expression. "Well then. I didn't know she swung that way. Disappointing. Well, Dipper, looks like I'll just have to deal with you." He walked further into the room, and Dipper lifted his knife, while Bill opened his hand, flames covering it.

Gideon paused and tilted his head. "Who's your friend, there?"

"Gideon, this is my partner, Bill Cipher."

Strangely, that didn't seem to surprise him. "Oh, Bill! How nice to see you again, and with a human body too! Oh, I remember when we worked together..."

"I remember you calling off the deal the moment I failed to deliver," Bill hissed.

"No need to be so hostile! I was impatient, but that's in the past, isn't it? Besides, I've made a much more reliable friend..." Gideon stood confidently with his hands on his hips as a stranger walked into the house.

They were about six feet tall, with a lanky build and thick, wavy red hair. Their round eyes were seafoam green and their skin was pale.

They were dressed quite colorfully. A white cape flowed off their shoulders, clasped in the front with a large red gem cut into the shape of a star, and their button-up shirt was pale purple, the ends of its sleeves adorned with glitter. The left sleeve was yellow, the right orange. Their loose, silky trousers were similarly mismatched; left leg was red, the other green.

Dipper wasn't sure why, but looking at the other made him feel very unsettled. And it wasn't just him; Bill tensed as well, straightening up.

"Dipper, meet Pavonis," Gideon said as the stranger stood next to him.

Despite his unease, the name made Dipper laugh. "Pavonis?" he repeated. He looked at the other, grinning. "Your name is Peacock?"

"It's not that funny," Pavonis said, sounding bored. Their voice was quite soft, almost wispy, neither low nor high. Just a medium pitch.

There were so many jokes Dipper could have made, but Bill was squeezing his arm in warning, and he heard the demon's voice speak urgently in his mind. _Don't anger him. That's a demon._

 _A demon?_ Dipper gave Pavonis a scrutinizing look. _Are you sure?_

 _Positive. I can sense it, and besides, I recognize his name. We've met before. He's a very talented psychic. Sure, he can't see into other people's minds or dreams, and he could probably only solve the most basic of puzzles, but... He can see things before they happen, can remotely gather information from far away, has the ability to watch things happen almost anywhere as they're happening, and not to mention can identify people by their auras. I have a limited ability to do that, anyone can learn it, but it's like another sense for him. You can't hide your aura from him, can see it and read it like a book. He already recognizes me, my aura would be like a fire to him. And worst of all... He can manifest in reality in his natural form easily. He can manipulate reality without a vessel. He's very dangerous... no doubt this form is just something he's projecting to look less dangerous._

The whole time Bill was speaking, Dipper was trying to act natural, looking Pavonis and Gideon over, even speaking out loud to offer a vague apology to the other demon, who accepted it politely enough. He was mostly trying to decide the best way to get rid of them, though. Luckily, mind to mind communication happened much faster than verbal speaking, and the other two didn't seem to get suspicious about his pause at all. He spoke to Gideon.

"What do you and your friend want?" Dipper asked.

"Oh, nothing much," Gideon replied, exchanging a look with Pavonis. "Pavo tells me that you have already figured out he's a demon."

 _Bill, I thought you said he couldn't read minds,_ Dipper quickly shot at his partner.

 _Not in the conventional sense but he probably read it in your aura!_

 _What the hell does that mean?_

Gideon continued, unaware of the conversation between the two, "Clever, but with you dating Bill, of course he would have told you. Well, why am I with a demon, you wonder? I need his services as a psychic, of course. I've heard tell of a string of murders going on for more than a year now. In many different locations, the deaths different but all quite brutal, but all with one thing in common... No evidence whatsoever. So I'm gonna investigate, and when I solve this case, I'll be famous again! More famous than you, Pines." Gideon strode forward and jabbed Dipper in the chest.

He gasped in pain and Bill growled, slapping Gideon's hand away. In an instant, Pavonis was next to them, eyes glowing a dark violet-blue. Bill's wrist was suddenly bent backward, and he quickly jerked back.

"Pavonis is gonna help me find magical evidence," Gideon said casually. "If there's nothing physical left behind, then clearly magic is involved. We're gonna go to one of the most recent crime scenes and he's gonna use his aura vision to see what's there, and then match it to the perpetrator. Easy as pie." He turned his back on Dipper. "Just stay out of my way. This is my case, and I'm not going to let you try and take all the glory."

Dipper glared at him. "I don't care what you do, just stay away from me. You and your demon need to get out of my house."

"With pleasure. Come along, Pavo." Gideon strutted out.

"My name is Pavonis," the demon muttered as he followed. As the door swung shut behind them, Dipper looked through the screen to see him transform into a small, star-shaped being. He ran over to look out the window, seeing Gideon mount an electric blue motorcycle, Pavonis turning to look back at the Shack one more time as he settled on the human's shoulder, and Dipper saw that he possessed a single round eye in the center of his shape, much like Bill. He had an array of colors to his points; the top was white, and going clockwise, went to yellow, red, green, and then orange. His center was a pale purple.

Then Gideon turned on the bike, kicked the kickstand up, and drove away.

Dipper sighed and slowly turned back to Bill. "I don't like this."

"You shouldn't," Bill said, massaging his wrist. "Pavonis has seen both of us. He has our auras memorized now. And when he gets to one of those crime scenes, he'll recognize our signatures immediately."

Dipper's eyes widened. "Shit."

"Shit indeed, Pine Tree."


	6. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect

Dipper tried not to worry about Gideon and Pavonis. Maybe they wouldn't find anything. And if they did... well, Bill could stop them from actually doing anything, right? Bill had said that Pavonis was a younger demon, so Dipper assumed he wouldn't be as powerful. But Bill explained that young demons had new tactics, strange ways of thinking. They may be weaker in ways, but they could be unpredictable. He said that Pavonis was usually too lazy to really be a threat, because even if provoked, the psychic demon would often just roll his eye and disappear to another dimension to get away rather than fight. He rarely raised his voice.

But Pavonis has proven himself to be extremely dedicated once a deal was made. Once he knew there was a prize waiting, he would do jobs very quickly and efficiently. He didn't waste time on theatrics like Bill, he simply did the assigned task and got his payment before returning to contently watching people and places using his abilities, simply gathering information, sometimes even getting glimpses of the future if he really concentrated. His perception made him a credible threat, and Bill was considerably worried.

"If Pavonis and Gideon come after us, they shouldn't be hard to stop, right?" Dipper asked the next day, after waking up to find Bill already out of bed and writing in a journal, deep in thought.

"Shouldn't be," Bill said, rubbing his eyes; there were lines under them.

Dipper frowned. "Have you been up all night?" He could have sworn the other had fallen asleep with him.

"No, not all night, but-" Bill was interrupted by an involuntary yawn. Once it was over, he said, "I got up at like... midnight, once I was sure you were asleep... I didn't want to bother you."

"Bill..." Dipper pushed his covers aside and got up, walking over the other. He flopped into the chair with him, glancing at his notes. They were all written in Latin mixed with a symbol code that Dipper was quite familiar with by now. He then craned his head back to look up at the other's face. "We're a team, remember? I can help you."

"Heh. You're clever, kid, but... You aren't up to fighting another demon." Bill pressed a kiss to his head. "He'd crush you."

"With how good my magic is? It won't be easy."

"No, it wouldn't be easy, but he could do it. You need so much more conditioning before you'd be ready to channel the kind of magic it'd take to fight one of us. Pavonis is young, you could maybe knock him out. But of course, that's if you're just using your own power... there are ancient spells of course. Magical words, rituals. Things that take magic from places other than you. You know about these things. I've been writing one for Pavonis. Just in case."

"Wow, really?" Dipper looked at the notes again with interest, deciphering them. "How's it coming along?"

"Heh. I'm getting there." Bill shifted, resting an arm around Dipper to accommodate him better. "If he tries to hurt us, I can get rid of him. I know how to break him away from a deal, at least. I know Pavonis. If I render his deal void, he'll just get lazy again and leave. That's a difficult spell but not too hard. You could probably do it with some training. It involves taking whatever Gideon had offered him and giving him an equivalent, if not greater, amount of pure magical energy. He'd take it, not need whatever Gideon had offered, and leave. And then we destroy the pudgy bastard before he can try to summon another demon."

"I like the sound of that. But what if worse comes to worst and we gotta kill him?"

Bill lifted an eyebrow. "Killing a demon ain't easy, kid. I could kill him, probably. But it'd be hard. I definitely couldn't do it through this body. And I'm not as strong in reality, where he'd be. Even with all the power I've been collecting. He was made for manipulating reality. He's a psychic. I'm meant to have total dominion up here." He tapped on Dipper's head.

"So what if we drag him into the Mindscape?"

"That would give me the home-field advantage. But he wouldn't go easily. One of us would have to be willing to give up a lot of energy to get him in there, while the other finishes him off. So... it'd probably be you who pulls him in, and I attack."

Dipper leaned back more against the other, enjoying his warmth. "What if we kill Gideon? What happens then?"

Bill pursed his lips. "Different demons would react to that differently... Something tells me that Pavonis would be angry for missing out on whatever he had been promised, and take his fury out on us, but he probably wouldn't kill us. I mean, I'd probably just give him the equivalent just to get him away from us. I really don't like cocky little demons like him."

"Cocky?" Dipper grinned. "You're cocky too, you know."

"Yes, well... I've been around long enough, I've earned it," Bill sniffed.

Dipper just chuckled and shifted so the other could continue writing, reading along.

After a few minutes, he asked, "Where do demons come from? You said he was young, but... how are you guys born, exactly? I don't think you've ever told me."

Bill chewed on the end of his pencil as he considered the question. "Well, that's hard to explain... there are many ways... Some are just... I don't know, they just kinda... come into existence. With some great concept or another, they exist to embody it. Like I don't remember ever being anything before this. Maybe I was simply spawned as a demon. Maybe I had a human life. I don't remember. It's not important. It would have been thousands of years ago. But I do know that demons can be made. They can be created by other demons, or a human can make themselves into one with the right magic. Heh, I really don't know how to explain all of the ways, and I'm kinda not supposed to."

"Well, who's gonna catch you, the demon police?" Dipper teased.

"As a matter of fact..." Bill laughed, giving him a small shake. "I just don't like to talk about it. It's a touchy subject, trust me. Just know there are many ways to do it."

"So how did Pavonis come along? Do you know?"

"Oh yeah. I remember when he first showed up. Confused, annoyed... apparently he dabbled into magic he shouldn't have, he was an aspiring psychic, and well... he destroyed his body experimenting with his gift. Became kinda an embodiment of psychic power. Not a bad deal though he was stripped of humanity, who needs that though, right? He wasn't even an adult yet when it happened, so you'll still see immaturity in him. They say that the reason he's so cruel in his jobs is because he's still taking out his anger on people for what happened to him. He doesn't fully remember who he was, but he remembers enough to know that everyone he ever knew or loved is dead, and it still upsets him."

Dipper nodded a bit. "Do you think that human form he was using is supposed to resemble his old body?"

"Yes, or at least, a more attractive form of his old body. I see into a lot of minds, kid. Millions. I knew him before he became Pavonis. I watched him quite a few times because I was intrigued by his power, though I never confronted him about it. He really wasn't that sharp, but he was determined. Had organized thoughts, at least. It's almost a shame such a promising human was cut down and became what he is today."

"I can't imagine... being changed like that by your own powers..." Dipper lit a flame in his palm, watching the yellow fire dance softly. "It must be frightening, waking up to find yourself as something completely different..."

"Yes, very. I see plenty of stress from new demons before they eventually adapt. Some do it more quickly than others." Bill put his journal aside and gently clasped his hands around Dipper's, the fire continuing to swirl, Bill's bright blue fire joining it. "But you don't need to worry. Unlike him, you have a tutor. I've taught you how to use magic very carefully. Pavonis lost control trying to empower himself, he got his wish in ways he didn't expect. You, however, are still human, and look at everything you can do. Be proud of it."

Dipper nodded, allowing his fire to die down, and Bill did the same.

"I hope we won't have to kill him," the human said quietly. "Or Gideon. I may not like Gideon much, but... I don't know, maybe prison changed him. He could be a better person now, still arrogant, but just wanting to bring what he sees as a serial killer to justice. He didn't seem to want to hurt us at all."

"I don't know, there was no reason for him to bring Pavonis in here to talk to us if his intentions were completely innocent. Something tells me if it had been just you in here, he would have tried to hurt you."

"He wouldn't have been able to."

"Heh. I know. You're so strong, after all." Bill brushed a hand through Dipper's hair, making him laugh, and leaned down to kiss him.

"Out of curiosity," Dipper breathed against Bill's lips, always reduced to a strange whisper when the other was so close and looking at him with those golden eyes. "How much magic do we leave behind when we do our work?"

"Not much. Small traces, the kind of thing that only an experienced mage would notice... or another demon." Bill pecked at the corner of his mouth, enjoying the light blush the human had. "We really are very discrete with what we do, but... there is a kind of residual left after we teleport to and from a location. It lingers for a while. And of course whenever I do my sweep to clear the area of any shreds of hair or skin that we may have left. That's a finely tuned piece of magic, it leaves a trace as well. Like a footprint, really. The kind of thing that if another demon were to pass by, they'd probably just glance at it and keep going without finding it interesting. But Pavonis... He'll stop to look. He'll examine it like... like one of your paleontologists finding a dinosaur footprint. But it'd be more like a fossil to him. He'll be able to look and use his power of retrocognition to get glimpses into what happened in the past in that location. He'll see the emergency responders and investigators and all those people who were there... and then he'll get a glimpse of us. Murdering the person. And he'll show that to Gideon. Who will immediately recognize us."

Dipper swallowed, mouth dry. When he spoke, he stuttered nervously. "B-But Pavonis isn't really a threat. We'll be able to stop him. Gideon doesn't really know any real magic, it'd be Pavonis against both of us, you're thousands of years old and I'm pretty experienced, we'd totally win."

"Of course. We'd totally win." Bill looked at his notes, writing a final symbol. "But I want to practice this with you anyway. If, somehow or another, it seems that Pavonis is actually stronger than us... I'll want you to know how to kill him. I'm... putting a lot of trust into you, because you could kill me with this too, if you chose. It requires a lot of magic, but I think you're capable of it. Especially if you draw from your surroundings, and that reserve of soul magic you have saved up. I can kill my own kind, but not with this particular spell. This is for humans to use."

"I wouldn't kill you." Dipper gently took the journal and pencil out of Bill's hands, putting them aside on the desk. Then he turned to sit on the other's lap, legs straddling him as he rested their foreheads together. "You can trust me."

He felt the other's light breath as Bill chuckled. "I dunno, kid... A lot of demons have met their doom that way. Trusting humans. They let them in too close, next thing they know..." Bill snapped his fingers, the sudden sound making Dipper jump. "They're dead, their power taken, never to come back."

"Maybe... but how many of those humans were sworn to serve that demon for the rest of their life?"

"Heh." Bill laughed again, arms wrapping around the other's waist. "Not many. If you killed me, that would be the end of our deal, and you would die. Remember the wording of that deal? You're mine for the rest of your life. If I die, then you're no longer mine. Which means your life would end."

Dipper inhaled; he hadn't thought about that. "Damn. So... even if someone else killed you... I'd die too." It wasn't a question.

Bill nodded anyway, humming. "Mhmm. But I don't plan on dying any time soon. Certainly not within your lifetime."

They sat together quietly for a while, not speaking out loud anymore, just silently communicating through their bond. Dipper was more worried about Pavonis now, and Bill focused on soothing him, reminding him of all the great things he has done, the power he had. He promised that he would spend more time meditating, gathering strength for himself, and Dipper told him that he would let him have a larger share of energy from the kills they make. Bill of course tried to decline, but Dipper wouldn't hear it, saying he needed it more. He needed to be able to stay strong while in reality.

Eventually, they got up and Bill picked up his journal, and the two had a quick breakfast of oatmeal and milk before heading outside for a magic lesson. Bill was more stern today, tutoring Dipper on the powerful demon killing spell for nearly an hour before deciding to let him practice it. First, he gently snapped a collar of his own creation onto the human that would lock down his power, so he didn't accidentally cast anything. Then he made him recite the words until he had them memorized, telling him that if the time came to use it, he could not just trust his thoughts. He had to yell the spell out loud for it to have its full effect. Bill waited until he was confident in speaking it, and then began spooking him.

The first time, Dipper wasn't expecting it at all, and was well into his recital when the demon suddenly jumped at him from the side, and he jerked back, his current word turning into a startled yelp.

"You can't let yourself get distracted!" Bill scolded, smacking at him with a tree branch he had found nearby. "Start over!"

"Daemon, audi," Dipper started, only to be struck in the face. Not hard enough to actually hurt, but it was annoying.

"You have to sound more convincing than that!"

"Why am I telling the demon to listen anyway?" Dipper demanded.

"It's part of the spell, and it gets our attention when you speak in Latin! Plus, some younger demons have a hard time resisting that basic urge to obey whenever confronted in their native tongue. Start again, and act like you mean it this time."

"Daemon, audi!" Dipper shouted, and this time, Bill blinked before grinning.

"Wonderful! But don't let your volume ruin your pronunciation! Keep going."

Dipper grumbled and called, "Daemon, audi!" He continued from there slowly, trying not to stumble over his words as he watched Bill carefully. The branch hit his side and he winced, but he kept speaking, his words naturally taking on a more aggressive tone as he essentially said that he would tear his victim's body apart, but hesitated as Bill ran in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. He started to damn the wretched soul within, and then the demon screeched. Dipper reeled back, covering his mouth in horror.

Bill kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking him to the ground, and before he could recover, his partner was sitting on top of him and pinning him.

"You got distracted," Bill sang, poking his face. "And you were doing so good..."

"Bill..." Dipper pressed a hand to his heart. "You scared me, I thought you were actually hurt or something..."

"Ha, why would you think that? Your spell is doing absolutely nothing right now, thanks to this." Bill tapped on the collar he had created. "Now finish that spell up, hmm?"

"Uh... do you want me to start over, or?"

"Just finish it."

Dipper took in a breath, and said, "Et relinquam anima pravus vestra mori."

Bill gave a small shiver, and stood up. "I'd be afraid if I heard a human saying those words with so much conviction."

"It... doesn't really sound like a spell," Dipper commented as he got up too.

"Well, do you really think a killing spell should sound poetic? Nah. It's the meanings of the words that are important, and all the magic that you're putting into them. You're using energy as you state, in one of the plainest and most powerful languages, that you want to tear a demon apart and leave their soul to die. If you mean it, and you're strong enough, it'll happen."

Dipper nodded in understanding. Then he reached up to touch the collar on his neck. "So um... will I be able to practice it for real?"

"That would be difficult, I'd have to drag a demon here for you to kill. And that would make quite a commotion, it'd get more attention than you'd want."

"Can't I just summon a weaker demon and then kill them once they arrive?"

Bill stared at him, then laughed. "Kid, you just keep getting more confident. Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Well, no, but... who cares? I want to practice."

"I don't blame you, but... that's risky. Here, how about this... we won't start with actual demons, I'll just... bring something from our dimension here, like an animal, you can kill that, and work your way up. Sounds good?"

Dipper nodded in confirmation. "Sounds good."

Bill chuckled as he shook his head, reaching out to remove the collar and make it disappear. "I'm so glad you're on my side."


	7. What A Cop Out

What A Cop Out

Dipper spent a few more hours practicing the spell, as Bill brought him larger and stronger animals from various demonic planes of existence. The first time he used it, on a bat-like creature that seemed fond of tearing skin off of humans, Bill took shelter behind a tree, holding the trunk tightly as he watched apprehensively.

Dipper had flawlessly yelled the words, focusing all his energy toward the animal, ignoring how it tried to claw and bite at him. It had barely started sinking its sharp teeth into him when there was a blinding burst of light, and the bat was hurled backward with an agonized screech, disintegrating into a dust that soon dispersed with the wind.

Feeling dizzy, the human had shaken his head and stepped back, trying to blink the spots out of his eyes that the light had left behind. It was like snow blindness. Through blurry vision, he had seen Bill jog past and to the place where the bat had disappeared, twirling his wrist around and then standing there for a moment. Then he had walked over to Dipper, who gratefully fell into his arms.

"Impressive," Bill had said as he supported him, stroking his hair. "Very impressive. But that was a weak demonic entity. Of course the spell worked."

"Bill..." Dipper had noticed the other shaking a bit. "Are you all right?"

"What?"

"You're shivering."

"Hmph. It's cold out here." Bill had helped the other straighten up, and Dipper looked carefully into his eyes. He was definitely nervous.

"Wait, were you scared?"

"What? I... no. No, just..." Bill had trailed off when it became obvious that Dipper wasn't believing that. "Okay, so maybe I get a little apprehensive when a human is using demon killing magic. But you would have to be actually intending to kill me for anything to happen. It's just instinct for me to worry when I hear those words. I'm definitely not scared."

"Oh man, sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. It didn't affect me, I just felt the magic brush past me. It knew what I was, but I wasn't the target." Bill had rested his head against Dipper's. "You tore that animal to shreds. It's gone. Forever. There are thousands more like that, so it won't be missed. But nonetheless, you permanently killed it. I took its energy, by the way. Trust me, you don't want to take our power, it's too dark. It would destroy you."

"Destroy me how?"

"Depends on the person... But your body and mind would be torn apart. What remains after simply will not be the same. Even these small, weak creatures will cause corruption... A strong sentient demon? Absorbing their energy is a death wish. But I'm able to handle it. I'll take the energy of anyone you kill, okay?"

"All right, I understand."

They had held each other for a while, until Dipper said, "Can I try on someone stronger?"

Bill had chuckled, "Don't get cocky, kid. You need to recover. This one took a lot out of you."

"No, I'm fine," Dipper had protested.

So at the human's insistence, Bill continued to bring him opponents, and now Dipper was fighting an actual sentient demon while Bill hung back and shouted encouragement.

Dipper was tired after spending so much time using magic, but he held his own against the impish creature with sharp horns that kept jumping on him and ripping in with its claws, catching it around the neck and throwing it aside every time it touched him. It spat insults at him in another language, and he was yelling right back at it, grabbing it by the tail at one point to hurl it into a tree. Finally he managed to get it pinned under a foot and used the killing spell, ignoring how the sharp tail sliced at his legs in an effort to get him away, and by the time he was finishing the last word, his pants were torn and blood was dripping from his skin. But the spell worked as it has previously, and the demon's body was ripped apart and its soul released, to be immediately claimed by Bill.

The dream demon sighed and stood up straighter as he took it. "Mm, my kind has so much raw power... This is so much more filling than a human soul." Then he turned to Dipper and saw that his pupils were small, face pale. "Pine Tree?"

With a resigned kind of sigh, the human's legs gave out and he collapsed. Bill caught him and sank down to the ground with him, sensing the other's thoughts disappear as he passed out.

"Oh, Pine Tree..." Bill chuckled. He was used to Dipper insisting on practicing magic until he lost consciousness. There was nothing to do now but wait for his body to recover the energy it had used. Though he did notice how cut up the boy's legs were, and decided to take care of that.

Laying him out carefully on his back, Bill moved down to roll the pant legs up, glad that they were loose enough to shift without doing too much extra damage. It was cold, however, so Bill worked fast. His palms glowed with blue healing magic, and he pressed one to each of Dipper's legs. The magic slid over his skin, and the cuts knit themselves together, blood melting away and vanishing. Bill waited until the cuts were only scars before pulling his hands back. They could finish healing on their own. He fixed Dipper's pant legs and pulled the human into his arms as he saw him shiver.

"It is a cold day, isn't it?" Bill said quietly, watching his own breath puff out. "We should go on vacation some time... I wouldn't mind visiting California. Or Florida..."

Dipper was unresponsive to those comments of course, but the warmth of Bill's body made him stop shivering. Bill didn't say anything else, soon laying down with him and curling around him, content to wait for him to wake up. He nuzzled into the back of Dipper's head, inhaling the familiar scent of his shampoo and enjoying the softness of the curls against his face. As Bill's arms linked around the other's waist, he thought to himself that he wouldn't have to worry about Pavonis. Dipper learned so fast that by the time that damn peacock tried to make a move, the human would obliterate him. And that was if Bill didn't just do the job first.

Reassured by this, Bill closed his eyes and went to find Dipper in the Mindscape. Time to get the kid back to his body so they could go home.

* * *

A few days passed without them hearing from Gideon or Pavonis at all. They continued conducting business as normal, figuring it'd be suspicious if the murders randomly stopped after Gideon just so happened to mention them to Dipper. But they tried to be sneakier about it, teleporting far from their targets and walking to find them so it'd be harder to find a trace of that magic, and usually resorting to using fire and gasoline to scour an area of evidence before leaving.

Though one afternoon, shortly after closing the Shack for the day, there was a series of firm knocks on the kitchen door, and Dipper looked out the window to see a cop car parked nearby, with Sheriff Durland and his rookie waiting at the door.

After taking a breath and mentally rehearsing his rights, Dipper went to talk to them, with Bill right behind him. They stepped outside and closed the door behind them before addressing the cops.

"Afternoon, officers," Dipper said cheerfully. "Sheriff Durland, good to see you. And officer Holland, how are you liking the job so far?"

"Good, good... mind answering a few questions, sir?" Holland asked.

Dipper casually crossed his arms. "What am I being questioned about?"

"Well, we got a report from this couple a few nights ago about witnessing a murder, and though they were drunk at the time, they said they saw who did it, and the descriptions match you and Mr. Cipher pretty closely."

Dipper lifted an eyebrow. "Really? How drunk were they, exactly?"

Durland laughed and Holland gave him a sour look. The sheriff said, "Very, I really don't think you or Bill are responsible at all, those descriptions could match so many people in town. They aren't even really from this area, so when I showed them pictures of you two, they weren't even sure you were the same people. But we have to follow up on it anyway."

"I see. And all you have is the word of two drunk people that me and my boyfriend committed a murder?"

Durland nodded. "Pretty much."

"Do you think it's the same as the ones that have been going on?"

"Oh, absolutely."

Dipper laughed. "Well I certainly don't make enough money to be going around the world on a killing spree, don't you think?"

"Yeah, this place can't be bringing in that much money," Durland agreed.

Holland cleared his throat and said, "So what were you doing on the night of September 21?"

Dipper raised a hand. "Wait. Am I free to go?"

"What do you-"

"Are you detaining me?"

Holland shook his head. "No, but..."

"Then I'm not answering any questions."

Durland chuckled and said to his partner, "I told you he knows the rights."

"Am I free to go?" Dipper said.

"Sir, it would really help our investigation if you just talk to us about this."

"Am I free to go?" Dipper repeated more firmly.

After a pause, the younger officer sighed and nodded. "Yes, you're free to leave at any time."

"Great. Have a nice day." Dipper turned to go back inside. Bill lingered for a moment, looking at the cops, before grinning at them.

"Good luck with your investigation, officers."

"We'll get it figured out one day," Durland said. "Besides, Li'l Gideon is out of prison now and I hear he's working with one of them psychic detectives to find out who's been doing it! Shouldn't be long now, he's really talented!"

Dipper froze at the mention of Gideon, but Bill pushed him along into the house and went in with him, saying, "Have you forgotten that Gideon was a fraud?" before closing the door.

They waited until the cops left, and then Dipper sighed and rested his head in his hand. "That could have been bad."

"Ya know, you should have just talked to them. Get the suspicion off you."

Dipper shrugged. "I don't like talking to cops. If I'm being detained then I'm gonna tell them I want to remain silent and wait until I can talk to a lawyer. Otherwise, I'm telling them nothing that they could use against me later."

Bill laughed. "Well, you're definitely Stanford's nephew. Heh, they didn't have any actual evidence, just a witness account. It probably won't be enough."

"Hopefully not."

The police never returned though, and Dipper soon put it out of mind, focusing instead on refining his ability to use the killing spell Bill had taught him. He became quite confident with it, his body adjusting to the amount of energy it took to cast. Though Bill told him that no matter what, if he were to use it against a demon as powerful as Pavonis, it would probably knock him out. It required more strength depending on who it was used on, and there really was no way Dipper could condition himself for someone like Pavonis without putting himself into unnecessary risk by summoning similar demons. All he could do was practice against weaker targets and hope it would be enough.

The first weekend of October, the two decided to spend some time relaxing after all the hard work and research they have done, making s'mores in the fireplace and watching old animated movies together. Working and stressing weren't very healthy at all, and they knew this.

Though they ended up running out of marshmallows, which totally wasn't Bill's fault, the demon claimed through a mouthful of goo. Of course, Dipper proceeded to smack him with a pillow and tell him they needed to buy more.

"Well, we need to go grocery shopping anyway," Bill commented, swallowing the marshmallows and freeing himself from the blanket they were wrapped up in.

"I don't wanna go out there, it's cold," Dipper complained. There had been snow flurries earlier that day. He wasn't taking a step outside.

"Pfft, you clearly haven't experienced the unforgiving vacuum of space."

"Clearly."

Bill rolled his eyes. "I'll go get us some more snacks. You want anything in particular?"

Dipper started to get up. "Hey, I can come with you-"

"No, it's all right, lay down. You're starting to get sick anyway."

"I am not sick," Dipper argued, though he unconsciously rubbed at his nose anyway.

"You were sneezing all night. Now stay here, I'll be back soon. Want some Pitt Cola?"

Dipper slowly laid back down. "Sure. And more chocolate. We're getting low on that too."

"Sounds good. I'll see what else I can find." Bill used magic to fetch a jacket, which he pulled on as he headed out. Dipper watched him leave, then snuggled into the blankets and looked at the TV. After a few minutes, he used his connection to the demon to sheepishly ask him to buy some cold medicine too. With this weather, he was going to need it sooner or later.


	8. Shopping

Shopping

Bill hummed as he walked out to the car and got in. On another day he would have enjoyed a walk to town, but it was much too cold for that and he didn't want his vessel to get sick. So he had to drive. It wasn't so bad though. He could sit down and crank up the heat, turning the radio to his favorite station, listening to ragtime music as he drove into town. He drove the usual speed limit despite the wet roads, not really concerned about crashing. He was confident in his driving abilities.

Out of curiosity, he went past the bar, glancing into the alleyway where he and Dipper had carried out their first vigilante murder. It was still roped off as a crime scene, but there was no one around at the moment. Bill has checked in on the gang that Jason had belonged to; they were furious about the murder and had publicly sworn to get revenge. Bill planned on just slitting their throats in their sleep or something so he wouldn't have to worry about them later. He probably won't even take Dipper along for that one, just do it on his own time.

Whistling along to the current song, he continued to the grocery store. There weren't very many people here, so he was able to park right near the front. He was still shivering by the time he got inside, and he sighed at the welcome warmth of the building. He greeted the one cashier on duty and grabbed a basket before going to the candy aisle. He grabbed another bag of marshmallows, a few bars of milk chocolate, and as a treat, Dipper's favorite candy: Twizzlers. Bill was pretty fond of the twisty candy too but he favored caramel.

He headed to a different aisle to grab a bottle of apple juice and a twelve pack of Pitt Cola, since they were running kinda low on drinks.

He was about to leave when he realized he should probably buy normal food. Quickly, he went to pick up a packet of cheese dogs, buns, and a few boxed entrees that would be easy to cook. And of course, he picked up some cold medicine as Dipper had requested.

As he was trying to decide whether or not they needed more peanut butter, a sudden presence made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, but before he could turn around, there was a body pressed against his back, thin fingers tightly gripping his arms and pinning them to his sides, far stronger than any human.

"Don't move," a familiar voice murmured into his ear.

Bill forced himself to breathe slowly, closing his eyes as he tried to get his hammering heart under control. Curse these human bodies and their overreactions to fright. Once he had control, he opened his eyes again. "Pavonis," he stated. He clenched the handle of his basket. "What do you want?"

"Well it's a funny thing, Cipher. I was planning on not having to look at you again, but wouldn't you know it, your aura is all over those murder scenes."

Bill inhaled and spun around, freeing himself from the other's grip and quickly moving to the center of the aisle so he wasn't being cornered. He faced Pavonis, whose usual bored expression was replaced with a knowing smirk. "And?" he snapped. "We're demons. You kill people, I kill people, what do you care?"

"I usually wouldn't care," the other said with a soft laugh, spreading his arms. "But Gideon tasked me with finding out who's been doing the murders. And you've been involved in all of them. You and that human boy toy of yours. I reported this to Gideon as requested, and now he wants me to carry out the next part of his orders."

"And what would that be?" Bill growled, standing taller in response to the threatening feel he was getting from the other. He wasn't going to let this younger demon intimidate him.

"Why, punishing you, of course." Pavonis lunged forward, but Bill's reflexes were quick, and he skipped backward several steps. The tips of the other's fingers brushed his coat, and Bill seized his wrist, giving it a sharp twist that made Pavonis hiss in pain.

"You do anything and these cameras will catch everything," Bill said, pointing at the cameras on the ceiling. There was at least one for each aisle.

Pavonis chuckled. "They'll see me fighting you, yes. But no one will be able to identify who I am, or determine where I will be going. That footage will be useless." Pavonis's foot connected solidly with Bill's shin, and the dream demon went down with a yelp, dropping the basket. Its contents toppled out, but he didn't pay attention, trying to struggle back onto his feet. He was tackled by Pavonis, and the moment his back hit the floor, the other's hands were around his neck. There was a thick, leathery item in his hands, and despite Bill's fighting, it was wrapped around his neck and tightened.

Immediately, the strength left him. The usual current of magic that filled his being, that he was so accustomed to that he hardly thought about it, suddenly vanished. He could no longer sense what Dipper was doing back home, he couldn't see into the Mindscape around him, and worst of all, it felt like he had been cemented into his vessel.

"What... what is this?!" he demanded, grabbing at the leather. It delivered a nasty shock to his hands, and he quickly let go as his body protested at the pain. This wasn't right, he should be able to override those signals, but right now they overwhelmed him, and they did not feel good at all.

While he was confused, Pavonis clocked him in the face with a solid punch, snapping his head back. Disorientation flooded his senses, and he found himself unable to compensate with his demon senses at all. It was like he had been struck blind and deaf, forced to rely on weak, limited human abilities. It unnerved him, and he had no idea how to handle this new change in perception. His vessel was strong enough, he has exercised it, but it couldn't stand up to a demon. When he tried to move forward in a counterattack, his legs were knocked out from under him, and next thing he knew, he was hitting the cold, tiled floor.

He whined in frustration as his limbs protested, then there were sharp knees in his back, one hand grabbing the back of his head and yanking painfully on his hair, the other hand curling fingernails against his throat, above the leather.

"Like my collar, Cipher?" Pavonis said quietly. "I designed it just for you. To lock down your powers."

Bill's eyes widened. Struggling, he brought a hand up to the collar, feeling static dance across his fingers. But he was able to touch a single finger to it without too strong of a shock, maintaining the contact just long enough to feel the runes etched into it. He swallowed. This was unfamiliar magic. New magic.

"Took me a while to put it together, but I had some help from Gideon. He made very generous loans of his own magical ability to me as well. He didn't have much, as an untrained human, but his was different enough from mine that it was very useful. Now, Cipher... time to go."

Bill fought to throw him off, but the other's grip was unrelenting, and his vision faded as Pavonis teleported them.

* * *

Bill has been way too silent.

Dipper chewed restlessly on some graham crackers as he tried to focus on the cheesy cartoon movie, but ever since he felt Bill's thoughts stop, he has been on edge. It wasn't like it was unfamiliar... sometimes Bill just felt like being a jerk and would temporarily cut off their connection so he could do his own business without having someone listening in. Sometimes he did it so he could get a surprise for Dipper without spoiling it. But this time seemed different. Usually there would at least be a bit of quiet from Bill before the connection vanished, but this time, he had been allowing his whistling and musing over various foods to come through, and then it just... went quiet. All he could pick up on was a kind of anger, then apprehension and worry, and... nothing.

Bill could take care of himself, he knew this, but he couldn't help but wonder what had happened. Did something startle him? Did someone in the store try to start a fight? It seemed unlikely, but what else could cause Bill's emotions to rise like that?

As he was considering tearing open another pack of chocolate, he heard someone knocking on the door near the stairs. Seriously?

"We're closed!" he yelled. The knocking persisted, and he grumbled as he got up. Could be one of their many acquaintances... who should know they should call first. Showing up unannounced on a snowy winter day was just rude.

When he reached the door, he found that no one was there. His brow furrowed. Okay, were the local kids getting an early start on Halloween pranks? He turned away, only to hear another set of knocks.

"I swear to God there better not be another flaming bag of dog shit on the porch," he said loudly as he turned back and swung the door open. Stepping out, he did notice the lack of any lit paper bags, so it was good so far. Then there was movement in the corner of his eye, and he turned just in time to be struck across the head by an iron pipe.

Pain exploded in his skull, so intense it brought him to his knees. Magical fire ran down his arms as he realized he was being attacked, but before he could use it, something was locked around his neck, so tight it almost choked him, and the fire went out.

Blinking tears of pain out of his eyes, Dipper managed to look up at his attacker. His vision was blurry and he had a pounding headache, but he could see well enough to identify the other. Gideon stood over him, smacking the end of the pipe against his palm. Dipper tried to use his magic, tried to throw the other away or teleport, anything, but nothing happened. The buzz of energy was gone. His mind was closed off, unable to access that power. The other boy had an insufferable smirk on his face, and as Dipper started to demand an explanation, the pipe was swung again, and there was another splitting pain before everything went dark.


	9. Punishment

Punishment

When Dipper came to, it was to the sound of loud growling and the clinking of chains. He groaned as he blinked his eyes open, wincing as the pain from a headache hit him. Then he became aware of his arms being held above his head, and when he flexed his wrists, felt something tight around them. Looking up, he saw leather cuffs attached to chains, which in turn connected high on the wall. The cuffs were carved with runes that glowed a faint violet color.

Dipper's brow furrowed and he quickly looked around to the source of the growling. Not too far from him was Bill, who was similarly tied up. The room was dimly lit, but Dipper could see that Bill's wrists were torn open from his struggling, blood streaming down his arms. He also saw a collar around his neck, and judging by the pressure on his own neck, he had one as well.

"Bill," he called to him.

Bill immediately fell silent, staring at him. Then his expression brightened. "Pine Tree! You're awake! I was starting to worry!"

"Y-yeah, I am... what happened? Where are we?" Dipper tried to reach out to the other with thought, but it was as if a blanket had been draped over his mind. He was alone in his head, unable to hear Bill's thoughts.

Bill's expression quickly soured. "I don't know exactly where we are. Some old wooden house from the looks of it. I was teleported directly into this room and tied to the wall. You were dragged in not too long after."

Trying not to panic, Dipper pulled experimentally on his bindings. They didn't give, nor could he burn them or split them apart. "Who brought us here? Did you see?"

Bill snorted. "Yeah, I saw. It was Pavonis and Gideon."

Dipper went still. "Pavonis and Gideon?" He remembered being knocked out by Gideon now. "Oh, oh yeah, Gideon attacked me earlier! He knocked on the door and when I came out he hit me with this pipe and... and he put this thing around my neck..." Dipper shifted his chin and could feel the tug of the leather on his skin. "And then I couldn't use my magic!"

"Yes, it's an enchanted collar, the runes are a newer magic but it's pretty much like what I put on you when you first practiced that killing spell. It prevents its host from using any magic whatsoever. You can't talk to me telepathically and I can't even get out of this body or see into the Mindscape."

"Oh God, then we're trapped, aren't we?" Dipper thrashed, trying to get away from the wall, and his shoulders protested the movement.

"Pine Tree, calm down, I'll think of something!" Bill said, wanting so badly to send reassuring thoughts to the other, but he couldn't. All he could use was his voice. "We're smart, we'll get out of this!"

Dipper started to relax, but a door opening made him jump and tense up again.

"Good, you're both awake," Gideon said cheerfully as he strode into the room, Pavonis following close behind him. Gideon stopped a few feet back from the two, looking them over. "So, Pavo, you say they can't use any of their magic?"

"Nope," Pavonis replied, eyes flicking over Bill and Dipper. "Go on, provoke them."

"Um... I'd rather not."

Pavonis rolled his eyes and walked forward, slapping Bill hard across the face. The dream demon snarled and snapped at him, but there was no blue glow of magic in his eyes, no fire bursting up in his hands.

Dipper flinched at the sound of the strike, and his eyes widened when Pavonis grabbed Bill's shoulders and roughly slammed him into the wall several times.

"Hey, stop!" Dipper yelled, fighting to pull his arms down, but only succeeded in chafing his wrists and making them bleed.

"Heh." Pavonis let go of Bill, who briefly slumped down before recovering and struggling to hold himself up again. "He can't do a thing."

"Fuck you," Bill hissed. His foot kicked out, hitting Pavonis hard in the shin, and the psychic stumbled back. He almost lost his balance, but recovered it, lifting his leg to massage his shin.

"Still got some fight in you, though," Pavonis muttered. "We'll see how long that lasts." He kicked Bill back, hitting him in the ribs and making him gasp for breath.

"What about Pines?" Gideon asked, carefully approaching Bill and looking him over.

Pavonis turned to Dipper, walking closer to him. The human pressed himself back against the wall, turning his head away as the other reached toward him. His chin was roughly grasped, head turned forward again. Anger flared in his chest as the other's green eyes locked onto his, but he still couldn't do anything. No matter how much he focused, how many words he yelled in his mind, he couldn't even summon the tiniest flame. He was powerless.

"He's on lockdown as well," Pavonis said, gazing into Dipper's eyes for a few moments before letting go of him and straightening up. "Thank you for your help with these collars. They are doing a marvelous job."

"No problem." Gideon came over to look at Dipper, leaning in to examine him, tugging his bangs back to look at his birthmark. Dipper took advantage of his proximity to lunge forward and bite into the other's hand.

The boy swore and tried to back away, but Dipper held on tightly, ignoring his disgust in favor of trying to at least bite through to the bone. He could taste blood. Gideon punched him with his free hand, which really hurt, but Dipper was used to such pain, and refused to let go. He could vaguely hear Bill cheering him on.

"I'll get him off." Pavonis grabbed Dipper's face with a hand, and next thing the human knew, his body was being wracked with pain. It felt like hot spikes were racing through his body, all the way down his spine and into every limb, and his jaw went loose immediately, allowing Gideon to pull away. Dipper screamed as his muscles went into uncontrollable spasms, as a burning smell filled his nostrils. Then Pavonis pulled his hand away, and Dipper went limp, panting. White lines covered his face, stretching from where the demon's hand had been, down his neck and disappearing from view under his clothing.

"What did you do to him?" Bill demanded, eyes wide with fear.

"He's fine, I just electrocuted him," Pavonis said casually, flexing his wrist. A few sparks of electricity flew from his palm and fizzled out. "You two have your pyrokinesis? I have my electrokinesis."

"What do you want from us?" Bill asked.

"I'm glad you asked. Gideon, the floor is yours." Pavonis bowed his head and stepped back as Gideon moved forward.

"When I heard about these murders going on, I was disgusted," Gideon said. "I wanted to bring the ones committing them to justice. I had a feeling the supernatural was involved, and when Pavo found Bill's aura, I wasn't that surprised." He grabbed Bill's jaw, squeezing it harshly as he glared at him. "I knew you were insane." He shoved his face away and stepped over to Dipper. "But then Pavo identified you."

Dipper leveled him with an equally angry stare, and Gideon didn't try to grab him.

"We went to several places to be sure, but it was definitely you underneath those tasteless hoods. And he recognized your aura anyway from when we met you. Once we were sure who we were up against, we spent a few days preparing those collars that you are both now wearing. And then we captured you, and here you are."

Bill forced a yawn. "Great, now what do you plan on doing with us?"

Gideon smiled, and reached inside his jacket, taking out a scalpel. "Why, punishing you, of course. You two have caused so much pain and suffering... I think it's time you paid recompense for your transgressions."

He grasped the hair above Dipper's temple, tugging his head back as he leaned over him, and lowered the blade to his forehead. Dipper fought to get away, but the other's grip was firm, and Pavonis soon came over to grab him, holding him still. Dipper could only watch with worry, eyes crossing as he tried to keep the blade in sight, but its point touched down right on the tail of his birthmark. A little more pressure and it cut through, beginning to move up and toward the center of his forehead.

A scream bubbled up in Dipper's throat, but he clamped down on it at the last moment, not wanting to give Gideon the satisfaction of knowing how much that hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut as the scalpel continued to cut, now moving down, and he could feel blood trickling down his face. He bit his lip, breathing quickly, refusing to make a sound even as pain assaulted his senses. He heard Bill yelling obscenities at Gideon, but the boy was ignoring them.

After what felt like forever, the blade was pulled back, and Dipper slowly opened his eyes. Blood ran into them, and he blinked. It felt like his entire forehead was stinging, and he shook his head, managing to return his breathing to normal.

"That looks good, doesn't it?" Gideon crooned, stepping aside.

Pavonis nodded in approval. "I like it. Let's see what his partner thinks." He pushed Dipper's head toward Bill, and Bill inhaled sharply.

"What, what is it?" Dipper asked quickly.

Bill's mouth was drawn into a tight line, one of his eyes twitching. "He marked you. With a star."

"A star?!" Dipper couldn't see his own forehead of course, but he reflexively tried to look up anyway, only to get more blood in his eyes. As he swore and blinked it out, Gideon took a mirror out of one of his pockets, holding it up to him. Dipper's eyes met those of his reflection, and then he saw the neat lines carved into his forehead, marring his birthmark, forming a simple five-pointed star shape. He gasped and jerked back.

"Oh, and we're just getting started," Gideon said happily. "That's just a little something to remind you of who you belong to now."

"I don't belong to you," Dipper snarled. "As soon as I get out of here I'm healing this, Bill is the only master I serve."

"Such brave words, little Dipper, but they're idealistic." Gideon played with the scalpel, letting the blood drip from it. "You ain't getting out of here. You and that shameful excuse for a demon are our prisoners now. You thought you were justified in torturing and killing people? Well, then I think we're justified in doing the same to you. I don't even think I'm gonna turn y'all in... I'll just punish you myself. With you two, this is personal." Gideon tossed the knife to Pavonis, who easily caught it. "Why don't you give Cipher a little mark as well?"

"On it, boss." Pavonis went over to Bill and got to work, and Dipper squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to hear the soft grunts of pain. They soon ended, though; Bill had a very high pain tolerance.

"Lemme see..." Gideon had a phone out now, flicking through it. "I've done research into all these murders, and lord, you two have done some awful things. Truly disgusting. But they do give me some ideas on what we can do to you. We aren't gonna kill you; not yet, anyway. But in the meantime, I think I'd like to try... ah, here's a good one. Pavo, how about the flaying?"

Dipper's heart stopped.

"Nah, not yet," Pavonis said, stepping back and flicking the blood from the scalpel. Bill opened his eyes and screamed at him, but the psychic hardly lifted a brow, instead making sure Bill saw it as he slowly licked the blade clean. Pavonis seemed to savor the taste. Then he continued, "I think we should just beat them first. Start 'em off easy. Beat them until they're about to pass out, shock them awake, and then we start using knives. Then we can start cutting skin off if we want."

Dipper swallowed, knees starting to shake. Gideon looked at him, and he forced himself to still, not wanting to show how afraid he was.

"I thought you were brave, Pines," Gideon mocked, pacing in front of him. "Are you really so reliant on your magic that you're helpless without it? How sad."

"Hey, if I had you tied up in an unfamiliar place, you'd probably be scared too," Dipper snapped.

"Probably. Guess I won't know, since ya know, I'm not the one tied up." Gideon walked over to a window that Dipper hadn't been paying attention to before, looking out. "In case you were wondering, we're in an old cabin that had been abandoned in the forest. There are plenty like it. This one is about... hmm, ten miles from your place, I wanna say? It's quite small, falling down in places, but it'll do. This room in particular gets a nasty leak when it rains. You'll find out soon, I'm sure."

It was pretty cold in the room, and now that Dipper was thinking about that, he shivered. That's when he remembered that he hadn't really been wearing a jacket earlier, just a sweater that Mabel had sent him. Bill was in a similar one. But it wasn't enough for the really cold weather.

"I assume this place is too old for a heating system?" Dipper asked.

"Oh yeah, definitely. You'll be miserable tonight." Gideon watched Pavonis as the star demon teased Bill with the tip of the scalpel, running it along his throat, and Bill was holding perfectly still so it didn't cut him. "Pavo."

Pavonis pulled away and returned to him. "My name is Pavonis, and I expect you to say the full thing, human."

Gideon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. All right, wanna get started?" He cracked his knuckles.

Pavonis pocketed the scalpel, flexing his arms. "Sure. Which one do you want?"

"Hmm... you know what, I think I want to take the demon." Gideon went over to Bill, who glared at him, eyes promising him a very painful death.

"He deserves to be knocked down a few pegs," Pavonis said, nodding. He stood in front of Dipper, getting a sure stance before reaching out to wind his fingers into the boy's hair and hold his head up.

"Ready?" Gideon asked.

Pavonis smiled. "More than ready."

"Let's punish them."

Dipper squeezed his eyes shut, prepared to be struck in the face, but instead received a hard blow to the gut that knocked the breath out of him. He wheezed, doubling over, and his shackles pulled painfully on his arms as he put his weight on them. Then came the fist to the face, snapping his head back into the wall, and he cried out as he felt bones crunch. He tried not to show fear as he looked back at Pavonis, but the other was a demon. And one that could naturally exist in reality as well, at his full power. So he was incredibly strong.

Soon, blood was dripping out of Dipper's mouth, and he was forced to close his eyes as repeated blows to the face caused rapid swelling.

Meanwhile, Gideon was beating down Bill without any rhyme or reason, just striking him wherever he could and as hard as he could, and the rings on his fingers soon tore the skin on Bill's face to shreds. Bill was soon having to jerk his head back, eyes tightly closed, in an attempt to keep himself from being blinded. His nose was already broken, a few teeth chipped. All repairable with magic... but still extremely painful. But Bill made no noise besides natural grunts as air was forced out of him, just focusing on breathing and riding out the abuse. He's had worse. No human was going to make him cry.

What Bill was concerned about were the noises from Dipper. He tried to glance at him as often as he could, and the weak sobs the other was making as he was struck made Bill's blood boil. He wanted to rip Pavonis apart for laying a hand on his Pine Tree.

"Such bold thoughts for someone so helpless," Pavonis commented, meeting Bill's eyes. He smiled. "No, I don't know exactly what you're thinking about. But I can see your emotions change in your aura. I can take a pretty good guess at what you're thinking based off that."

"I fucking hate you, and as soon as we get out, I'm going to take great pleasure in ripping you apart piece by piece," Bill swore.

"Shut up, Cipher," Gideon responded, hitting him in the mouth and breaking a tooth out. Bill made a startled gasp at that one, coughing and spitting the tooth out, along with a fair amount of blood. "Not so great when teeth are ripped out of your own mouth, huh?"

"And I'll enjoy making you suffer as well," Bill hissed at Gideon. "I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance. It would have been so easy. But I thought prison would take care of you. Guess I was wrong."

"Prison shaped me into a better American. I'm doing a great service to the public by taking down two menaces like you."

"Gideon, listen," Dipper managed, spitting out blood. Pavonis started roughing him up again, but Gideon held up a hand.

"No, let him try to defend himself."

Pavonis respectfully stepped back, idly examining the blood on his hands.

Dipper took in a few breaths, and said, "Look, we... we aren't killing anyone innocent. You've dealt with demons, you know... when you make a deal with one, you are expected to uphold your end of the bargain. A payment is agreed on. You must pay it. Pavonis, what would you do if you were promised something and then the person refused to pay it? And not only refused, but ran away? After taking whatever you had given them?"

Pavonis gave him a bored look. "Kill them, probably. Or take whatever it was anyway."

"Exactly. Kill them." Dipper glanced at Bill, shocked at how torn up his face was. Then he looked back at Pavonis. "Remind me, what is the alternate payment that's always accepted? If, for whatever reason, the first one falls through?"

"Souls, of course."

"Right! Souls!" Dipper looked at Gideon. "All we're doing is debt collection! For anyone who has dealt with Bill and then betrayed him! We're just taking them out! It's something Bill would be doing on his own, I'm just helping him now! Gideon, surely you understand!"

"Oh, I understand. That doesn't mean I like it." Gideon pointed aggressively at Bill. "That demon is murdering people and you're helping him do it. I don't care that he thinks it's justified. It isn't. You two have caused too much pain to be allowed to just walk away!"

"A-are you going to keep us here?" Dipper asked, feeling his breathing speed up as he started to panic.

"I dunno. I might. Depends on how much I decide to punish you two. But you can be sure of something, Pines. You won't be leaving for a very long time."


	10. No Mercy For the Guilty

No Mercy For the Guilty

It felt like hours before Gideon and Pavonis finally stopped their assault. Both Dipper and Bill were on the verge of passing out, hanging limply by their wrists, neither bothering to put their weight back on their legs. They didn't have the strength for it.

The wood below them was stained with their blood, and the whole room seemed to reek of the scent of copper.

"Hm... I think that's good for now," Gideon panted, looking at the knife he had been using. His brow was covered in sweat, and he had thrown his jacket off earlier so he could move more easily. Now he went to pick it up, as Pavonis paced in front of Dipper and Bill, looking over their handiwork proudly.

"Any comments, you two?" he asked them.

Dipper didn't open his mouth for fear that he would start crying from the pain, but Bill spoke. "I'm going to kill you," he promised. "You can't keep us here forever, and as soon as we're out, we are both going to kill you. And it will be slow and painful."

Pavonis snorted. "Brave words from someone who can't even speak telepathically to their own soul-bonded partner. Don't you get it, Cipher? You're powerless. As long as that collar is around your neck, you can't even burn an insect with your magic. And let me tell you something else." He walked closer to him, grabbing the collar and yanking him forward, glaring into his tired but defiant eyes. "I may kill those who back out of deals too, but I don't enjoy it and I don't draw it out so they suffer. What you and that human are doing is sick. And then, this... this self-righteous vigilante thing you've started... disgusting. You are both arrogant fools and you deserve to feel everything you've ever inflicted on someone else."

"You're a hypocrite," Bill seethed. "You fucking young demons, you're still so human inside, aren't you? You don't get how those like me think. You're more self-righteous than I am. Demons my age are quite proud of what I've been doing, how I've manipulated a human into helping me, the fear that we've caused across the world. You... you're soft. Sympathetic. That's what's really disgusting."

"Oh, shut up." Pavonis reached down to grab a wound on Bill's side, twisting his hand and making the other demon hiss in pain. "It's you old demons who are making us look bad. With your senseless violence and killing... You all need to be destroyed. It's time for younger beings to take charge. Beings like me." His fingernails constricted, expression becoming more concentrated, and Bill felt a wave of faintness. "Do not mistake me... I'm not going to kill you. Nor will we kill Pines. But by the time we're done with you, you'll never want to hurt another human again. We are going to strip both of you of your magical power. All of it."

At that, Gideon grasped Dipper's shoulder, muttering a few words and crudely drawing strength from the older boy. Dipper struggled, eyes wide as he realized what was happening.

"And once it's all gone? We'll let you go." Pavonis sighed as he absorbed energy from Bill, but soon stopped, lifting his hand. "The human may be able to recover his through training, but... you, Cipher? I'm going to take your demonhood. Everything that makes you one of us... it will become mine. When we're through, you might as well be another human. If the trauma of the process doesn't kill you, you'll probably kill yourself after."

Bill gave a barely perceptible shake as Pavonis's hand traced down his cheek, as the psychic murmured, "I've seen very few demons who wish to continue living like that... I'll be looking forward to seeing how you handle it. After all, you are one of the most powerful. Imagine waking up one day and not having that anymore." Pavonis chuckled at Bill's fear. "You wouldn't be able to go on."

"He'd have me," Dipper said weakly. The others looked at him, and he gave Bill a sad smile. "E-even if they took your magic... at least we'd have each other, right?"

Bill swallowed, then nodded. "Yes. Yes, I'd still have my Pine Tree. And we'd find a way to get our power back. Even if it takes years."

"How sweet. Well, I wish you luck on that." Pavonis strode over to Gideon, flicking his cape out behind him as he did. "I should tell you... I don't like making the innocent suffer. But you two are not innocent. I feel no remorse in torturing you. And when I decide to torture, I can make it last for months." Pavonis grabbed Dipper's collar, causing the other to make a pained choking noise. " _Years_ ," he emphasized. His eyes trailed down Dipper's body, taking in the bruises and gashes and exposed muscle where skin had been torn off. They had of course removed the clothes from their captives' upper bodies so they could reach the skin. "We're just getting started. If you think today was bad, just wait until tomorrow."

"It is starting to get cold," Gideon pointed out. He had put on his leather jacket and buttoned it by now. "I think we should head back to civilization."

"Good idea. You think it'll get cold enough to give these two hypothermia?"

Gideon checked his phone. "Hmm. It's gonna be very cloudy tonight but the temperature shouldn't drop below freezing. Those freak snow flurries shouldn't come back either... but light rain, perhaps."

"All right. Then they should be okay overnight. Though... let me see." Pavonis went over to Dipper, leaning up to mess with the chains that attached to the wall. "I am not unmerciful. It'll keep you in better health if I allow this for tonight." He removed the chains on the wrist cuffs completely, and they disappeared as Dipper fell to the floor, unprepared for his weight to be put on his legs. Pavonis held him down with a foot and reached for the back of his collar, using magic to create a thick new chain, which he seamlessly attached to the collar and drew down to the floor. It was very short; Dipper wouldn't even be able to stand with it. But he would be able to sit up.

And he did, as Pavonis walked over to do the same with Bill.

Wincing, Dipper stretched his arms and rubbed them, feeling the muscles sear with pain as blood rushed back into them. The moment Bill was allowed to sit on the floor, Dipper crawled into his arms, and Bill quickly hugged him back, holding him tightly.

Pavonis shook his head at the display and moved beyond their reach. "You two disgust me. Enjoy each other's company for tonight, but in the morning, we're moving on to much more painful punishments."

"Pavo...nis. Hey, why are we letting them stay together like that?" Gideon asked as he followed the other out.

"Let them be together and talk," Pavonis replied. "It's so much more satisfying when you let them gain hope before crushing them."

The door closed behind the two, and Dipper and Bill slowly looked at each other, not saying anything, just taking in the sight of the other's injuries. Then Dipper began to cry, weakly and quietly, but it was enough to worry Bill.

"Hey, it'll be okay, we'll figure out a way out of this," Bill said soothingly, rubbing Dipper's back, which had thankfully been spared of the majority of the damage since it was against the wall earlier.

"I... I can't believe they're doing this... how can Gideon be so cruel?" Dipper's voice was thick with tears, and Bill's heart ached, tears stinging his own eyes.

"We already knew he was cruel." Bill held him closer, his free hand reaching down to take one of Dipper's. He raised it, looking sadly at the bruising and dried blood on his wrist, before kissing it. "But I didn't expect him to go this far."

"I thought... I thought he would have changed in prison, that they would have taken care of that violence, but... he's still as cruel as before."

Bill gently placed Dipper's hand down, seeking out the other so he could kiss that wrist as well. "I looked into his dreams one night, you know," he said quietly. "I wanted to see if he was any different now. And you know what? He is. At least, I thought he was. He seemed calmer, more rational... but I don't know, I guess him learning that it was us behind the murders just set him off. He feels a sense of justice in punishing us. Heh, kinda like what we feel when we kill. We aren't so different from them. Both of us have the same motive to what we're doing... hurting those who deserve it."

"I understand their point of view. Just... God, we hurt people, but not like this, we kill them afterward so there's no more suffering, we don't just... just leave them in the cold, slowly bleeding out, with the promise to come back the next day..."

"True, but we have done some very awful things. Honestly, I get the feeling a lot of people wish they could do this to us."

"Most people would probably just shoot us in the heads and be done with it," Dipper mused.

Bill chuckled. "Yeah. Or stick us in a prison cell for the rest of our lives."

Dipper shivered, nestling closer to Bill for warmth. "It's really cold out... I wish we had our magic."

"Me too." Bill reached up to his collar, and his hand was zapped away. He tried to ignore the pain and force his hand closer, but it was like trying to push together two magnets that had the same poles. A magical force pushed back against him, and when he used more force, it only resulted in his hand being shocked back again.

"Here, let me try." Dipper reached to Bill's collar, but the same effect happened to his hand, and he was barely able to brush his fingers over the material before the electricity forced him to withdraw it. "Hm. I know these runes... kinda. Wait, I think some of this is just Latin letters... And I don't know the language."

"Typical." Bill sighed as he looked at Dipper's collar as well. "Young demon, new magic. But this isn't too different from what I taught you. If I could just get one of these damn things off by force, I could disable the other one..."

"Wanna try?"

"Hmm, well my pain tolerance is better than yours... okay let me try. Sorry in advance." Bill grabbed the other's neck, and the electricity coursed into his arms, but he gritted his teeth and fought it, managing to hook his fingertips under Dipper's collar. He pulled, but the leather didn't budge. He tugged and twisted it, but it was too thick, not even tearing. And the voltage was making his teeth chatter, body twitching. He finally let go with a hiss, looking at the smoke curling off his fingers.

"Any luck?" Dipper asked.

Bill shook his head. "No. It doesn't even seem to have a clasp, it's just... a solid piece of leather going around your neck." He leaned around to check, and nodded. "Yeah, it's just a seamless strip of material. I can't rip it."

Dipper sighed and slumped forward. "Great. If only we had my knife... but I left it in my room."

"I didn't think to grab any weapons either before I went out." Bill laid down carefully, cringing as the hard floor scraped against his wounds, but putting up with the pain so Dipper could stretch out on him instead. "It was just supposed to be a quick trip to the store for food, no more... I didn't know we would be attacked. I should have paid more attention to Gideon's thoughts, but I didn't... maybe if I had watched his dreams, I would have foreseen this."

"Don't blame yourself. We both got cocky, we thought we'd be able to fight them off... we didn't count on them just... assaulting us. I mean, Gideon came at me with an iron pipe for God's sake. I wasn't expecting that. It doesn't matter how strong your magic is, if someone hits you over the head with a pipe, you're going down."

"Hmph. What a dirty tactic. Pavonis at least fought with me. He won and I can respect that. I hate it, but I respect it."

"How did he manage to take you down? You're so tough."

"Mm..." Bill sighed as he slowly stroked Dipper's back, feeling the human relax against him. "He's much stronger than any human we've fought. My magic didn't really intimidate him, it was down to a physical fight, and he took advantage of natural human weak spots to knock me down. I wasn't even on the ground yet when he was on top of me and wrapping this damn collar on. After that, I couldn't do anything. He punched me and then teleported us... and now I'm here."

"So he just quickly jumped you."

"Yeah."

"Just like me. Man." Dipper closed his eyes, just listening to the other's heartbeat and trying not think about how he ached all over, how even now, he was sure he was bleeding. He felt dizzy and nauseous, and not only was it getting colder, but he was hungry. And worst of all, he couldn't even talk to Bill in his mind about it. He would have to speak to him out loud, and he was too tired to do that anymore.

Bill may not have been able to hear his partner's thoughts, but he could read him well enough based on his body language. He rested his head against him, pressing a quick kiss to his temple. "We'll be all right," he said softly. "Go to sleep. You need to recover."

"Bill... I'm scared," Dipper admitted.

Bill didn't respond, just petting his back until he heard those even breaths that let him know the other was asleep. Only then did he speak, in a voice almost too low to hear. "I am too."


	11. Bad Morning

Bad Morning

Bill was woken up some time in the middle of the night by Dipper sneezing. The moment he gained awareness, he shivered violently; the temperature had dropped drastically since he was last awake. And with the humidity where it was, his skin was coated in a layer of cold water that leeched the warmth right out of him.

"Fuck, that's cold," he commented, but in a way, he was thankful. His body was too numb to feel the pain from earlier. Dipper sneezed again, and he jumped, looking down at the boy. The human was curled up against him, nose buried against the crook of his neck, little shivers racing down his spine every few seconds. When Bill lifted his hand to the other's cheek, he inhaled at how icy his skin was.

"We need a blanket... or a fire." Bill knew it was useless, but he tried to summon a flame anyway. He focused, whispered magical words, snapped his fingers, but nothing worked. He was still powerless. Sighing, he shifted to wrap his arms around Dipper, pulling the human closer to him. It was very dark in the room, with the only source of light being the Moon shining in through the single window, but he tried to look at Dipper's wounds anyway. What he could see wasn't promising. Massive bruises, deep cuts, torn skin that would likely get infected soon. The human's curly hair was a tangled mess, and Bill absentmindedly ran his fingers through it. He didn't want to go back to sleep. Without being able to go to the Mindscape, he had been forced to endure the dream produced by his body's brain. No doubt influenced by primal fear, the dream had consisted of being chased through an endlessly long series of corridors in a pitch black house, while something laughed and clawed at his back. It had never quite grabbed him, but he had felt sharp claws ripping through his clothes, felt cold breath across the back of his neck, and the dream had forced him to feel a fear he would never normally experience.

Just as he had felt the claws locking around him, a noise had startled him into opening his eyes, only to find that it was Dipper's sneezing. Bill didn't want to return to that dream. Nightmares were only fun when he was inflicting them on other people.

Still... as bad as his was, he could only imagine what Dipper must be dreaming about. He watched the human, wishing he could see into his mind like he used to. It was so lonely not hearing his energetic thoughts all the time.

When Dipper sneezed a third time, Bill made a face at the spray hitting his skin, almost scolding the other before deciding it wasn't worth it. Sneezes were involuntary, he couldn't get mad at that.

Dipper soon began to cough though, and the motions were violent enough that he woke up, pushing himself up onto an arm as he wrapped the other around his stomach.

"Pine Tree? Are you okay?" Bill asked with concern.

"Y-yeah, just... just a cough..." Dipper sounded like he was in pain. "It'll pass..."

Now that Dipper's head was up, Bill could see how red his nose had gotten, and there was also a flush in the tips of his ears. As mucus began to drip out the other's nose, Bill said, "You're sick."

"N-no, I'm not..." Dipper hastily wiped his nose off.

"You are! Damn it, you're sick!" Bill slammed his fist into the wall, which did crack it, but mostly ended in him hurting his hand. He cursed and rubbed his hand. "Fuck you, Pavonis! Fuck you, Gideon! I'm going to kill you both!"

"Ssh, they could be hiding somewhere," Dipper warned.

"I don't care, let them hear!" Bill reached down to the leg of his pants, tearing a strip of fabric from the bottom and handing it to Dipper. "Here, the material's rough but it'll do."

Dipper accepted it, holding the fabric against his nose.

"It's like forty degrees, maybe less, and we're covered in water because of the humidity," Bill continued, angrily wiping some of it off of himself. "We're both going to get hypothermia because the fat bastard and the peacock didn't give us a fucking blanket."

"Of course not, we're prisoners," Dipper replied, with a sneeze into the makeshift napkin. "A-at least it's cold enough to numb us... I can't really feel pain anymore..."

"But that's not entirely a good thing. It means our nerves are overloaded. We could be getting frostbite and we wouldn't even know it." As that thought occurred to him, Bill began rubbing his hands together and exhaling onto them, trying to keep his fingertips warm. He's seen what happens to humans who get frostbite and leave it untreated. He didn't want to loose any fingers or limbs on a relatively new vessel.

"I don't think it's cold enough for that..." Dipper commented. "At least, it wouldn't happen very fast. It should stay above freezing all this month... I hope..."

"Yeah, but we could get a cold front. You never know." Bill gathered the other closer to himself, trying to keep him warm.

"What time do you suppose it is?" Dipper asked.

"Hm..." Bill looked out the window. "I can't tell. It's just dark. All I can see outside are trees, I can't even look at the sky. But I don't think we were asleep for long. It could be three, four... might be only midnight. I don't know."

Dipper sighed and buried his face against the other. "I don't want them to come back. I don't want more of... that. Bill, I'm really scared."

"Ssh, it'll be all right. We'll get through this together. They said they won't hold onto us forever, they'll let us go... no matter what, we'll be together."

"But they're going to take all our power, by the time we're free we won't have anything left, we'd... we'd have to start all over again..."

"If we must, then we will. But I won't lose hope. I've been through a lot in my life, Pine Tree. Really, this is not the first time something like this has happened. I have reserves of power. Once you're a demon, you remain a demon. Stripping everything that makes one a demon and making them human again... that's very powerful, difficult magic. I don't think someone like Pavonis is capable of it. He can certainly weaken me. But I'll keep my immortality unless I'm outright killed. Don't worry about me."

"Okay... I mean, we've underestimated him before, you know..."

Bill was momentarily quiet at that. Then he said, "I know. I'm not making that mistake again." He felt the other shift restlessly and began rubbing his back. "Go back to sleep. You need the rest."

"I don't want to sleep. I'm... not tired."

"I don't need my powers to know that's a lie."

"It's just... I don't want to have another nightmare."

Bill frowned. So Dipper was having bad dreams before he woke up. He gently kissed the other. "If I could be there in your dreams to make them pleasant, I would. But for now, I can be with you in this way, and hope my presence transfers into your dreams. Regardless, the rest will give you the energy you need. Nightmares or no. I'll be here for you when you wake up, to assure you that none of it is real." Bill rested his chin on Dipper's head when the boy's face moved against his neck. "If it's any consolation... I had one too."

"You had a nightmare?"

"Mhmm. Quite a frightening one, too. But I'm awake now, and it can't hurt me. None of them can really hurt you. You'll wake up completely unharmed. Unless, of course, certain dream demons were involved. But none should be messing with us. Pavonis is the only one who means us harm, and his power does not extend to dream manipulation."

"That's good, at least..." Dipper huffed as Bill's collar lightly shocked his face, and moved to instead rest his head against his partner's shoulder. "I'll try to sleep... but I'm not looking forward to morning."

"Me neither, but we'll get through their torture together. Just stay strong, my love. Stay strong."

Dipper uneasily drifted off again, which seemed to take nearly an hour. Bill took even longer, first making sure his partner was asleep before even letting himself relax, and then taking several minutes to fall asleep himself. But he finally did, resignedly letting himself be pulled into a dream.

* * *

The two were woken up by the door to the room being slammed open. As it bounced off the wall, the two quickly sat up, groaning and shivering as it seemed their bodies had become even colder since they were last awake. There was soft orange light coming in through the window; the Sun was just beginning to rise.

"Good morning, time for burning!" Pavonis came in wielding an acetylene torch, and Dipper scrambled back so quickly the back of his head slammed into the wall. He desperately tried to yank his collar off, only to get his hands shocked away as usual, while Pavonis roared with laughter.

"You bastard," Bill snarled, protectively moving in front of his partner.

"Oh, I'm not going to be using this yet." Pavonis turned it off and thrust the torch into Gideon's hands, still chuckling. "I just wanted to see the looks on your faces. Cipher, you're boring, but the human is very entertaining."

Dipper put a hand to his chest, feeling his heart pounding. "God," he muttered, breathing rapidly. "You asshole."

"I know, it's a talent." Pavonis cracked his knuckles. "All right, I hope you two are well rested? We have a busy day ahead of us." He turned to Gideon, who took off a backpack and handed it to him. As Pavonis was going through it, the boy gave him a small nudge.

"Hey, uh... Pines doesn't look too good," he commented.

"Well I wouldn't expect either of them to look too good," Pavonis replied, his voice now lowered to its usual deceptive softness. He seemed bored again, taking an assortment of blades in various sizes and shapes out of the bag. "Ooh, hey, I think we should use this twisty one and put it right through one of their biceps."

"No, I mean... well just look at him."

Pavonis glanced up at Dipper, whose eyes were red, nose running. He narrowed his eyes before sighing. "He seems to be sick. Well, that's not my problem." The psychic straightened up, running his fingers lightly over a straight, sharp knife. "If he dies then we just get his magic more quickly. No big deal."

"I don't want him to die though. That'd make us just as bad as them," Gideon said, giving Dipper a worried look.

Pavonis rolled his eyes. "Please, spare me. With the lives they've taken, it'd be perfectly fair if they died too. Karma and all." He stepped forward, closing in on Dipper, who pressed himself against the wall. He met Pavonis's eyes in an attempt to look strong, but it was apparent from his shrunk pupils that he was scared.

"Get away from him!" Bill hit Pavonis's arm as hard as he could. Quick as a snake, Pavonis turned and swung his knife. Bill jerked back, hand flying to his cheek as blood sprayed out. Fingers pressed to the long gash, and Bill paused momentarily, scowling at the sharp pain.

"Try to hit me again, Cipher," Pavonis warned. "See what happens."

"You're torturing us anyway," Bill spat. "I don't care what you do to me, this is just a vessel. As soon as I can get out of it, I'll be fine."

"Assuming you can get out of it. I told you, I'm taking all your demonic energy. You'll be trapped in that form for the rest of its life. After that? Heh, who knows, your soul may just pass on like a human's. It certainly won't be anything like it was before." Pavonis dragged the blade along the other. "Enough talk. I think it's time to get started. Gleeful, do as you like. But try not to kill them."

Gideon searched through his backpack before extracting a knife of his own, this one with serrated edges, along with a lighter. "Aren't you gonna chain their arms back up?"

"Nah. I wanna see them try to fight back." Pavonis slashed at Bill again, and when the demon jerked aside to avoid the blade, Pavonis kicked him hard in the ribs. There was a crack, and Bill gasped. While Bill was distracted, the psychic sliced open his neck. He missed the jugular, but the strike was still incredibly painful.

Bill grabbed the wound, putting pressure on it as warning signals from the body assaulted his mind.

"Ah, it won't kill you. Besides, if it does look like it's gonna bleed too much... we have bandages." Pavonis leapt forward, slamming Bill under him, knees digging harshly into the other's arms to pin them. Bill snarled, legs kicking, and Pavonis called, "Gideon, stop his kicking, would ya?"

Gideon took out a crowbar and hurried over, bringing it down on one of Bill's legs. There was a sickening crunch, and that leg immediately stopped moving as Bill cried out. With no hesitation, Gideon snapped Bill's other leg, and the demon gritted his teeth to stop his agonized shout. When he opened his eyes, tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Oh, it'll heal," Pavonis said in a falsely sweet voice. "I just don't want you trying to go anywhere. Now stop struggling or this will be really painful for you." He pushed Bill back with a hand and lowered the knife to his neck, digging the point in, letting it cut before retracting it and moving it to well underneath the collar, pushing down over Bill's clavicle.

Bill's fingers scratched at the floor, and he squeezed his eyes shut, all his focus on not whining or crying out. He had been thankful for his earlier numbness, but it didn't go deep enough to alleviate this pain. And this body was unaccustomed to it; the sensation was like an overload to his nerves, and it took effort not to just pass out from the pain.

Dipper's face paled at what was happening to his partner, and he tried to get up and go help him, but Gideon soon grabbed him and choke slammed him to the ground. He sputtered and squirmed, lungs struggling to draw breath as Gideon's beefy hand pressed down on his windpipe.

"You won't be as troublesome as that demon, right?" the younger boy sneered, and Dipper shivered as he felt the crowbar ghost along his leg. "Ya want me to break yours too? It'll be a snap." He chuckled at his own joke, and Dipper quickly shook his head. "So you'll cooperate? Good, Pines. That makes this so much simpler."

The crowbar was put aside, and Dipper audibly sighed with relief. He regretted it when Gideon's thumb pressed under his chin, cutting off his air completely, and his body went into an oxygen-deprived panic, struggling and trying to pull away. As his lungs were screaming and his eyes were slipping closed, Gideon let up, and precious air rushed into his body.

"Let's see... oh yes. I remember what I was gonna do to you." Gideon took out the knife he had chosen earlier, along with the lighter. He flicked the lighter open and activated it, then held the blade over the flame.

Dipper laid below him panting, but when his eyes opened and he saw what the other was doing, he fought to escape.

"Hey, stay still!" Gideon sat on him, bulk easily pinning him, and Dipper felt a twist of fear as he realized his hands were pinned under the other's legs. He wiggled but couldn't get them free. And he didn't risk trying to kick; he saw what happened to Bill. "I wanna try something here."

Dipper could only wait, staring up at Gideon, eyes occasionally darting over to Bill as he heard muffled gasps and the whisper of the knife cutting into skin. Then he began to watch Gideon more, as the blade took on a noticeable red glow. It was nothing magical; just the natural appearance of metal exposed to flame.

"Now this is gonna be interesting." Gideon held it for a few more seconds, running the flame along the length of the blade, before turning off the lighter and pocketing it. He lowered the blade, and Dipper tried his best to lean away, but Gideon struck him across the face and yelled at him. He yelled back, and then the point touched his stomach.

Pain, red hot pain stabbed through him. He screamed at the touch of the hot metal, body reflexively drawing back from it, but he had nowhere to go. Muscles strained uselessly, and the knife cut in deeper, sliding across his belly. He screamed and writhed as the skin was easily sliced apart, exposing the muscle underneath to the air, leaving behind a line of fire.

When the knife retreated, Dipper slumped down, panting and trembling as sweat broke out on his skin. He had barely started to get used to the intense burning when it came down again, and on top of that, Gideon's other hand pressed to the first wound, fingernails scratching against the torn skin, and he felt his voice crack as he yelled.

Bill was in just as much pain, but his eyes shot open at the sound of Dipper yelling, and he fought so hard to free his arms that Pavonis was momentarily thrown off balance. The point of the knife, which had been sunk into his ribs, was knocked askew, which only tore a deeper gash into him. He didn't care, straining to shove Pavonis off of him and reach Dipper.

Pavonis swore and yanked the knife back, slamming the handle into Bill's head. It disoriented him, forcing him to still for a few moments. Long enough for Pavonis to adjust his position to keep him pinned.

"You piece of shit. Haven't you realized by now? Fighting back is pointless." Pavonis grabbed Bill's face, digging his fingernails in as he leaned down, bringing the knife close. "You know, you look much better with only one eye... how about I make your human body match your old demon form? That way every time you look in the mirror, you'll be reminded of what you were, and what you lost."

Bill's eyes widened, and he quickly closed them, trying to turn his head aside. "N-no," he gasped.

"Cooperate or I'm removing both."

Bill visibly trembled, brows furrowing as he mentally struggled to get out of the vessel, but it was no use. He was forcibly bonded to it. The magic on his collar had been designed well. Much too well. He was forced to stay in the body and experience all of its pain. And none of this was hilarious.

Though he was almost incapacitated by the agony of the hot knife in his flesh, Dipper was just coherent enough to hear what Pavonis was threatening, and he fought the pain to plead with him.

"D-don't do that, do anything else, just don't," he managed before he broke into sobs at what Gideon was doing to him, and closed his mouth to muffle the sounds.

"Aw, look at how he's begging me to spare you," Pavonis said with that false nice tone, caressing Bill's cheekbone with the knife. "He must really love you. But if he does love you, then I doubt it's for looks. He should still feel the same way about you even if I ruin this pretty face."

"Pavonis, please," Dipper choked out, tears streaming down his face as Gideon pulled the knife back again, taking out the lighter to reheat it. "I'll do anything."

Pavonis looked over at him with a predatory grin. "Anything?"

"Oh boy," Gideon muttered as he watched his blade grow red.

"Kid, you've been living with a demon for this long and you don't know to never say 'anything' to one of us?" Pavonis laughed. "You stupid bastard."

"Look, I..." Dipper swallowed, and continued, "Say anything. Anything you want to do to me. And I'll accept it, I won't even fight back. Just spare his eyes... and mine. Please."

Pavonis ran his thumb along the sharp edge of his knife, a frown tugging at his lips. "There's no fun if you don't fight back. But you know what? I'll spare him today. But one day, it'll happen. And no amount of begging is going to stop me from pulling out one of those pretty gold eyes. In the meantime..." He moved it down to Bill's throat. "I think I'll be quite pleased with taking off more of his skin, piece by piece..."

Dipper yowled as he felt the searing touch of Gideon's knife again.

"I sincerely hope you two are well rested."


	12. Blinded By the Spite

Blinded By the Spite

Days passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Every day, Gideon and Pavonis would have crueler and more sadistic weapons to torture their prisoners with, laughing at their screams of pain, kicking them and goading them into fighting back, only to violently cut them down every time they tried. At one point, Pavonis used his magic to crudely heal Bill's legs (it was obvious he lacked the skill that Bill himself had) and encouraged the dream demon to try and run. Bill hadn't been foolish enough to try, but his legs were left in their crippled state.

Gideon and Pavonis would also drain their captives of magical energy every night, which left them exhausted and usually about to pass out by the time the two decided that was enough and left. It was an invasive feeling, as if claws were ripping their insides out, and they hated it almost as much as the torture.

Dipper ended up coming down with a horrible case of the flu, constantly coughing and sneezing, which made his nights as hellish as his days. The only relief was when they were abandoned at night, cold but at least able to recover and huddle against each other for warmth. They weren't sure why they haven't been separated. They figured it was because their captors didn't want them getting too sick; sharing body heat kept them relatively warm. Though sometimes they were left with a moldy, ratty old blanket if the forecast called for rain that night, again to prevent sickness.

They were allowed some water every day, but food was scarce. They were lucky if they were left some stale bread at night. So on top of being cold and in pain, they were also constantly hungry, and the two were quickly losing hope of rescue.

Dipper and Bill had both tried to scare their captors at first, reminding them of how popular they were, surely people would come looking for them, but... their location was remote. It was deep in the woods, surrounded by trees, easily looked over. The canopy also shielded it from anyone who may be flying above in a helicopter or plane. But Gideon took great pleasure in telling them about the efforts of the townspeople to find them, how Mabel was now back and assisting the search parties, and if he really wanted to infuriate Dipper, implying that he wouldn't mind capturing her too if she got too close to figuring out where they were.

Dipper hated Gideon, but that didn't compare to how much he loathed Pavonis. The psychic was insane, malicious and unforgiving with his tools, inflicting pain far beyond anything Gideon could do. In fact, Gideon usually only took part for an hour or two before seeming to get uneasy and backing off, only for Pavonis to happily continue for the rest of the day. Gideon's techniques were blunt and crude, to be expected of someone who had spent so much time in prison, but Pavonis treated torture like a work of art. His hands were delicate, skilled as he carved into skin, and his eyes lit up with glee as he used fire to burn flesh or channeled his own electricity through a body. It was Pavonis who, about a week in, decided that he wanted to nail one of them to the floor crucifixion style. Just because he wanted to see how the victim would handle it.

Dipper was chosen despite Bill's pleading to be used instead, and Gideon was given the task of holding the young man down as Pavonis got to work.

It was an agonizing process. Dipper struggled and jerked his limbs away as much as he could, but when his arm was held flat against the ground with his palm up, he just couldn't free it. His other hand lifted helplessly, almost beseeching Pavonis not to bring down the hammer, but of course, the demon didn't listen.

Dipper screamed as the three-inch metal nail was driven straight through his palm and into the floor, and when Gideon let go of his arm, he could not lift his hand. He gasped and tugged on it, before clamping his mouth shut, exhaling shakily as tears rolled down his face.

"Fun fact," Pavonis laughed, twirling the hammer around, "Crucifixions weren't actually done using the hands and feet, but rather the wrists and ankles. Because the bones of the hands and feet are too delicate to support the weight of the rest of the body if hung from a pole. But it'll work just fine for this."As Dipper whimpered under his breath, Pavonis used the nail-removing side of the hammer to rip open the skin over his ribs. "Oh shut up, I'll remove the nails when I'm done and you can tell everyone you're the fucking son of God. You're arrogant enough to pull it off."

Bill was currently chained to the wall; cuffs had been temporarily made to bind his arms back, keeping him upright and unable to even reach for his partner to offer any consolation. He was too upset to even yell at the two as he usually would. He could only watch as the next nail was driven into Dipper's other hand, tears rolling down his cheeks, dreading whatever they had in store for him next.

It only took a couple minutes to finish, and then Pavonis and Gideon were standing and backing away, laughing as Dipper tried and failed not to sob. He wasn't even bothering to try and free himself anymore, just laying in the stretched out position, eyes tightly closed and trying to stay awake; as tempting as passing out was, he knew that it would only lead to more pain. Last time he let himself lose consciousness, he had been woken up by a meat cleaver removing his left pinkie. Yet he knew it would happen again, it was involuntary, a reaction to shock, and that just made him even more terrified.

"This was fun, wouldn't you agree?" Pavonis said, nudging Gideon.

The boy chuckled. "Yeah, it is pretty good. Kinda blasphemous though."

"Ah, I don't give a fuck." Pavonis stepped down on one of Dipper's hands, grinding his shoe into it and making him gasp. "Man, your metacarpals are wrecked. Good luck writing like you used to... Gleeful, do you wanna get these off him or have fun with Cipher?"

Gideon shrugged. "Ah, whatever you want, I think I'm good for today."

"Already? Come on, you never want to torment them for long."

Gideon held his hands apart. "I just get bored pretty quickly. To be honest I'd rather be in a house with heating, or at least a fireplace. Ya know, I should be trying to go to school again, really."

"What? School?!" Pavonis seemed both amused and incredulous.

"I missed out on a lot of education, I kinda wanna catch up. This is fun and all, but..." Gideon frowned as he looked over Dipper, and then Bill. "I'm getting tired of coming out here every day."

Pavonis snorted. "Well, as long as you don't feel sorry for them or anything."

Gideon's expression became uncomfortable. "I... no. No, I don't."

"Good." Pavonis knelt down next to Dipper, using the hammer to begin wrenching the nails free, none too gently. "While I'm removing these nails, why don't you remove Cipher's nails?"

Gideon looked confused. "Uh... Bill's nails?"

"Ya know." Pavonis tossed him a pair of tweezers. "The natural ones."

Bill watched Gideon carefully as the boy caught them. Was it just him, or did Gleeful seem apprehensive? He certainly didn't seem enthusiastic. But he walked forward anyway, grasping one of Bill's wrists.

"You gonna cry, demon?" he asked, sounding bored as he closed the tweezers over one of Bill's fingernails.

Bill rolled his eyes. "Hell no."

"Of course you won't. You're used to all this already." Gideon smoothly yanked the nail out. Bill didn't even flinch.

"I've been tortured before," Bill sighed, rolling his shoulders. He watched Dipper with a frown, wincing as his lover was freed from the floor and tried to push himself up only to cry out and collapse. "You two are impressive but actually not the worst I've had."

"Wow, who else have you pissed off?" Another jerk, and another fingernail was separated from the skin.

Bill bit his lip as that one tore skin out with it, and blood ran down his hand. "Other demons. Monsters. Um... a particularly vengeful exorcist. Trust me, I've had it bad."

"I must say, I'm impressed that you can carry on a conversation right now."

Bill smiled humorlessly. "Thank you."

Gideon lost interest in his task halfway through, sighing and lowering the tweezers. He shook his head. "I just don't want to do this."

"Are you feeling remorse, perhaps?"

Gideon's expression hardened. "I don't feel bad for either of you, okay? I just don't like doing this! In prison they taught us to solve things with methods other than violence! I did so well in those classes and now look at me! I'm hurtin' and torturing like I ain't learned nothing!"

Everyone was staring at him as he finished speaking, and his face flushed as he turned away from Bill.

"Pavo, I'm leaving for today," he said firmly.

Pavonis lifted a brow at him, then shrugged and stood up. "Fine, but before you go... can you help me with something? I'm gonna need some extra hands."

Gideon looked at the door, then gave an exasperated sigh. "I guess."

"Hold Pines down so he can't interfere. But I want him to be close enough to watch."

Gideon complied, holding Dipper's arms down. The older boy didn't have the energy to resist. Meanwhile, Pavonis snapped his fingers and the wrist cuffs on Bill vanished. Bill wasn't prepared to have his weight suddenly put onto his legs, and he collapsed onto his hands and knees.

With a mental command, Pavonis had the chain of his collar move as well, going down to connect to the floor like it usually was at night, but greatly shortened.

The psychic hummed as he sat on Bill's chest, knees pinning his arms to the floor. He met the other's angry eyes as he extracted a knife from his pocket. It was the long, straight one that he seemed to favor. Its blade was stained red after repeated use.

"It's time for the grand finale, Cipher," Pavonis said, fingertips dancing over his knife. "What I've been wanting to do for days now."

Getting an idea of what Pavonis was planning, Dipper rasped out, "No, please! Anything but that!"

"You are really adamant about him keeping his eyes," Pavonis laughed. "Relax child, I'll leave one of them. Unless you make a big deal about this, in which case, I'll go ahead and pull out the other."

"You've hurt us enough, you don't need to partially blind Bill, please just let us go!" Dipper had additional things to say, but was interrupted by a coughing fit.

Pavonis laughed. "As touching as this begging is, he's not getting out of it." He roughly seized Bill's cheeks and kept his head still.

Dipper squirmed under Gideon's strong hands, crying and pleading as he watched Pavonis move the point of the knife to Bill's right eye socket, pressing it just below his eye. Bill laid perfectly still, staring straight ahead, teeth clenched and mouth drawn into a tight line. His expression didn't change when the blade dug into his lower eyelid.

"Not gonna react, huh?" Pavonis teased. "Well let's see how long you keep that stoic expression when I'm scooping your eye out. I'm not going to make this fast."

"Watch closely, boy," Gideon said to Dipper, holding his head turned toward Bill. "He deserves this."

Dipper wanted to close his eyes, but he just couldn't. It was like looking at a train crash. He could only stare as Pavonis slipped the knife past the eyelid and into the flesh under the eye.

Bill's breath hitched, fingers clenching, but he set his jaw and refused to make a sound, continuing to stare directly ahead. He had a high pain tolerance. He could take this.

Pavonis seemed disappointed, but not discouraged. He dug the knife in until the point scraped bone, and carefully worked it around the circumference of the eye. When he snapped through the first ocular muscle, Bill gasped softly, but quickly bit down on the noise.

Dipper's stomach lurched at the sound of muscle ripping, feeling nauseous at the sight of blood pouring out of Bill's eye socket. He's seen worse, but seeing this happen to his lover made it almost unbearable.

"We're about one-fifth of the way there," Pavonis said, dragging the blade around to cut through the next muscle. Bill's eyelid twitched, more blood and tears streaming out, but he was quiet. Shock was making the area numb, as his consciousness faded out from the trauma of what was happening. He was already weak from the blood loss he has suffered today as well.

Dipper closed his eyes, unable to watch any longer. Luckily, Gideon didn't seem to notice, eyes trained on Bill.

Pavonis paused to check on how Bill was doing, clicked his tongue, and said, "You know, you're making this very unsatisfying."

"Good," Bill growled.

Pavonis sighed and got back to work. "Well, I don't like to leave a job unfinished." He had to wiggle the knife a bit to keep it going in the right direction, which did draw a quiet groan from Bill, but not enough to really amuse the psychic. He finished severing the muscles and dug the eye completely out, and the iris turned dark brown as it lost contact with Bill's mind. Optical nerve was cut, and then Pavonis grasped the organ between his fingers, showing it to Bill.

The dream demon stared at it with his remaining eye, seemingly in awe, then promptly rested his head back and blacked out.

"Damn, I forgot how traumatic that is to humans... Gideon, stop the blood." Pavonis examined the eye as he waited.

Gideon got up with an indistinguishable mutter, digging a wad of fabric out of his pocket and coming over to apply pressure to the socket. The blood soon soaked through, so he resorted to taking out his lighter and cauterizing the area. It was messy, but effective.

Dipper opened his eyes again, glancing over. Seeing Bill lying so still, eye closed and blood covering his face, he cried out, fearing the worst.

"Oh, shut up, he's alive," Pavonis snapped. "We're not letting either of you die, I told you that already. Death would be too easy for you. We're going to let you suffer a while longer." He got off of Bill, kicking his side in an attempt to wake him up, to no effect. Shrugging, the psychic shifted his attention to Dipper. "Want me to make you match your partner?"

"I'd rather not," Dipper replied, trying not to look afraid.

"Heh. I'll let you keep your eyes. But there are other parts you don't need." Pavonis dropped onto his knees next to him, grabbing one of his hands and swiftly chopping off his other pinkie. The bone and flesh was separated before he could even react, and he had a split second of horror before the pain hit, and he screamed. Pavonis closed his eyes in relish. "Mm, you're so vocal... it makes up for Cipher's silence."

"Okay, Pavonis, I think I've had enough for today," Gideon said, sounding sick.

Pavonis scoffed. "Oh, please. You wanted me to do this. You wanted me to torture them in the ways they've tortured others. They've removed eyes and cut off limbs. He's lucky I didn't take the entire hand. Maybe I will later. So he can never hold a knife again."

Dipper swallowed, staring at the bleeding spot where his pinkie used to be. He could see white where the knuckle bone was exposed.

"I'm done." Gideon began gathering up his stuff, shoving things haphazardly into his bag. "Maybe I'll come back tomorrow. But I've seen enough of this. I'm not like them. I can't just torture people like this every day."

"You're not just torturing 'people', you're punishing two particular people who deserve it! You said it yourself, they need to pay recompense. That's what we're doing!"

Gideon straightened up, bag slung across his back. "They've paid enough." He gave Dipper a lingering look, then turned and left. A few moments later came the sound of a motorcycle revving up.

Pavonis rolled his eyes and looked at Dipper. "Well shit, it might be your lucky day. Fatty might decide to end the deal tomorrow. I'd have to let you go. Pray to whatever God you believe in that he does, otherwise you're in for a good time. Remember the acetylene torch? I'm gonna have some fun with that." He was still holding Bill's eye, and he gave it a final examination before tossing it up. Magic consumed it and it disappeared.

Then he leaned over Dipper, grasping his face and holding his other hand over him. He flexed his fingers and whispered a spell, and Dipper groaned as magic was siphoned out of him, converted into energy that Pavonis absorbed for himself. This continued until Dipper was about to pass out, and then the other stopped, letting go of him and going over to do the same to Bill. His eyes took on a purple glow as he stole the demonic energy, and if Bill had been awake, he would probably be writhing with the pain of the process. In a way, it was lucky that he was unconscious right now.

Once Pavonis had his fill, he got up, the glow disappearing, and turned to go. Humming, he strolled over to the blanket that was used at night, picking it up and looking it over with distaste. Then he threw it at Dipper's face, walking out without a backward glance.

Once alone, Dipper struggled into a sitting position, wincing at the blood dripping from the day's wounds. He held up his hands, staring at the holes in them, eyes itching as he felt like crying. How was he going to fix this? He could see all the way through, could tilt them and look at the layers of skin and muscle and then bone. He was thankful that Pavonis had used thin iron nails, nothing like the thick wooden ones that would have been used for actual crucifixions, but the damage was still extraordinary. And then there were the ones in his feet...

He peeled old bandages off himself, trying not to look at the mottled and torn skin under them, wrapping the bandages instead around the nail marks. Gross, probably not even effective, but it made him feel better not having to look at the holes. Then he painfully crawled over to Bill, looking him over and finally letting himself sob. He draped over him, resting his face against his, begging him to wake up. He could feel the rise and fall of Bill's chest, but it was slow, and he feared that it would just stop. All he could do was hold him and wait.


	13. The Weakest Link

The Weakest Link

It took a long time, but Bill did eventually wake up. The moment his left eye opened, he swore.

"Fuck, that hurts!"

Dipper jolted up, and pain raced up his arms as he used his hands, but he couldn't care less at the moment. "Bill! You're alive!"

"Yeah I'm alive, holy hell that is painful!" Bill's hand covered the empty socket, and he winced, blinking his remaining eye.

"Well, uh... it looks like he did a clean job, at least..." Dipper said weakly.

Bill scowled, fingers probing the socket. "Yeah. It's surprisingly clean... Pavonis is efficient. But fuck, this isn't gonna be pretty."

Dipper leaned into him, letting some weight off his protesting hands. "You can just wear an eye patch."

"Hmmph. Great." Bill sighed and lowered his hand. "Fine. Could be worse. He could have removed both."

"Yeah..." Dipper sighed too. "I'm so sorry... I'll try to heal it later. If... you know, if I can still use my magic after all this..." Using magic seemed like such a distant possibility now. He hasn't done it in so long. They still wore the collars, and their energy was constantly being sapped from them. Even if his collar was taken off, he doubted he'd be able to do anything.

"Don't worry about it. I've had vessels mutilated before." Bill smiled. "I'm pretty tough, you know."

Dipper laughed. He was surprised he still could despite how horrible their situation was. "Yeah. You are."

"Heh." Bill's laugh and smile lightened the mood despite everything. "So where'd Pudgy and Peacock go?"

"Gideon said he was tired of doing this today and left. Pavonis went with him." Dipper slowly tugged over the blanket, going ahead and pulling it over him and the other. They probably weren't going to move anywhere for the rest of the night.

"Really? Hmm. Is it just me, or does Gideon seem like he's not enjoying this anymore?"

"Oh no, I noticed it too. He always leaves first."

"It's hard to tell without my usual perception, but I think he's starting to regret this. Even when he's helping with the torture... I don't know, he doesn't seem as into it. It doesn't hurt as much."

"Yeah." Dipper nodded. "I think he wants to quit. Just pay Pavonis and let us go. Since we've suffered enough."

"We really have. It's going to take some seriously healing magic to fix us up... or a long time in the hospital, if we can't use our magic."

Dipper's eyes drifted shut as his exhausted, abused body urged him to sleep. "I know they've been taking our magic... do you think it's gonna cost you your demonhood?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. Maybe." Bill shrugged. "I can't tell at this point. Pavonis has taken a lot from me. I honestly don't even know how much power is available to me right now. I am literally unable to sense it. But... I'm hoping he's an amateur when it comes to this, and that I'll be just as much of a demon as I was before."

"I hope so too."

Bill nuzzled Dipper as he slid his arms around him. "Do you want to talk?" He always asked him that. Best for his love to get his emotions out early, so they wouldn't fester and lead to mental illness later on. The past days have been very traumatic and Bill did his best to put the other at ease at night.

"N-no, I think I'm all right, I just..." Dipper freed one of his hands from the blanket, holding it up and nibbling on his lip. "How am I ever going to write again?"

Bill looked at his hand sadly. "You still have your fingers... most of them. Your pinkie..." His eye widened. "They removed that one too?"

Dipper nodded.

"Those... _bastards_!"

"It was Pavonis who did it..."

"Of course it was. I hate that fucker so much... Oh, dear Pine Tree, I'm so sorry..." Bill gently cradled Dipper's hand, but even that soft touch hurt him, so he quickly let go. "But you'll be able to write. Trust me."

"Okay." Dipper moved his hand back under the blanket.

"Anything else?"

"No... I'll be okay... I'm just glad I have you. Being able to lay here with you, talk to you... it helps keep me strong." Dipper gently pressed their lips together. Bill smiled and responded, then reached up to brush his hair over his empty socket.

"There," he chuckled. "Out of sight, out of mind."

"That'll work." Dipper leaned up to tenderly kiss below the socket, then kissed Bill's mouth again. His body got its usual flush as he did, which helped distract him from the cold. They stayed together for several long moments, before they had to separate.

"I love you," Bill said quietly.

"I love you too."

"We'll get out of this. One way or another."

"Bill, I've tried to think of ways out of this, but I just can't, we're trapped unless they decide to let us go, I can't-"

"Ssh." Bill stopped him with a kiss. "I understand that you're the smart one. You're the one who gets us out of trouble and comes up with the plan. But it's okay to not know how to get away from this. They've got us good. Relax, I don't blame you."

"I'm sorry, just... I don't know, I'm sorry, I'm freaking out..." Dipper was starting to panic, and Bill held him more tightly. He was used to this.

"Hey, remember when you said you were all right? You clearly aren't. Let's talk."

"There's nothing to talk about, I should be able to get us out of this and I can't, that's all there is to it!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself. I tried to think of a way out of this too. But I got nothing. I wouldn't expect you to." Bill settled him with well placed kisses and soothing whispers, and Dipper finally relaxed, face flopping against Bill's chest.

"I'm sorry. I'm so tired."

"I understand. So am I. Today was rough."

"That's the understatement of the century." Dipper coughed quietly, and as he sniffed, remembered again that he was sick. "Tonight is gonna suck. I wish we had your dream magic."

"Me too. Try to get as much rest as you can, though." Bill shifted, sacrificing his own comfort to gently maneuver Dipper into the most comfortable position he could offer him. This also involved Bill giving up a good portion of the blanket so the other could be warm, but he didn't mind. Dipper was the mortal. Bill's vessel could always be replaced.

Dipper was quiet for so long that Bill was sure he had fallen asleep, but then the human spoke. "Hey... Bill?"

"Why aren't you sleeping yet?" Bill chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to the other's temple that made him laugh too.

"I will, just... I wanted to tell you..." Dipper chewed on his lip, then said, "I... forgive you."

"Hmm? For... Oh." Bill's eyes widened. "You... forgive me?"

"Well... 'forgive' might be too strong of a word... but I've accepted what you did, I'm... not mad about it anymore. Just... figured I should tell you that I don't have any hard feelings toward you, in case... I mean, I wouldn't want us... me... to..." He lowered his voice, almost sounding ashamed, "Die... with you thinking I hate you."

Bill stared at him, then laughed weakly. "Dipper, you really think... oh, Pine Tree..." He nuzzled him gently. "I know you don't hate me. You accepted the reality quite a while ago... and hey, you are not going to die. I'm not going to die. We will survive. I do not expect forgiveness from you. But you have put it behind you, and I appreciate that. But it wasn't necessary."

"I know. I just don't want to hold a grudge against you."

"What I did is completely deserving of a grudge."

"Yeah. It was. But... it's in the past. I'm just... going to let it go."

"If that's your decision... then thank you."

"No problem... goodnight." Dipper rested his head down against Bill's chest, eyes closed. The demon slowly stroked his back.

"Goodnight. And you aren't going to die," Bill said firmly. "So don't say that."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too."

Bill watched as it grew steadily darker outside, listening to Dipper's unsteady breaths as they slowly evened out, waiting patiently for the man to sleep before he even thought about closing his own eye. He found that he didn't miss the other eye too much. It was just annoying still being able to feel eyelids there, but no actual eye. Maybe he would mind more if he gets into a situation that requires depth perception, but for now, it made no difference.

Dipper did drift off eventually, he always did. Bill smiled as he felt him relax, letting himself relax as well. He was used to sleeping on the wooden floor, and while it wasn't comfortable, it was tolerable. He could certainly ignore it by now.

As he felt himself slipping into that welcome darkness, a familiar noise outside made his eye snap open again. No. It couldn't be time yet... it's only been a few hours. It was still night.

But that was definitely the sound of Gideon's motorcycle. He still couldn't believe the teen drove that thing through the woods to get out here. He must be pretty skilled on it. That or there was actually a road of some sort to this location.

Bill glanced at Dipper, who slept on. He decided not to wake him. He just listened, hearing the sound come closer and then stop right outside. A few minutes passed, and then the door to the room quietly opened. Gideon stepped in, then immediately stopped when he saw Bill staring at him.

"Cipher," he said quietly.

"Gleeful," Bill hissed.

"Ssh, you don't need to wake Dipper up, just... I um... brought something." Gideon hesitantly walked closer, leaning down to set a bottle next to Bill.

Raising an eyebrow, Bill stretched out an arm to pick it up. It was hard to read the label in the dim lighting, but he could make out enough. "Is this cough syrup?"

"Yeah. Um... for him." Gideon gestured to Dipper. "And for you, I guess. Just in case. It's not much but it should help."

"Why did you bring us this?"

"Because he's sick."

"I know he's sick, but why do you care? You've been torturing us for days."

"Look, I..." Gideon glanced around, then leaned closer. "I feel bad, okay? Just take the damn cough syrup."

"You do realize we won't be able to keep this, right? Pavonis will see it. And he'll ask questions."

Gideon sighed. "Right... okay. You'll just have to take your doses right now then. I can bring it back later..."

"I guess that's the only option. Dipper, love, wake up." Bill gently shook Dipper's shoulder.

The human whined as he shifted. "Is it morning already?"

"No, it's not. Just wake up, I have something for you."

Dipper opened his eyes, blinking and giving Bill a dazed look. "What?"

"Gideon brought us medicine." Bill showed him the bottle.

"Wow, what?" Dipper woke up more fully, examining the bottle. Then he looked over at Gideon, furrowing his brow. "Why?"

"As... kinda an apology, I guess? You two are going through so much... I don't want you to have to deal with being sick on top of that." Gideon looked awkward, but sure of himself. "You can't keep the bottle though. Take some and give it back."

"I don't understand you," Dipper sighed, but he looked at Bill and nodded. The demon quickly uncapped the bottle and tore off the protective seal. He didn't bother using the measuring cup, just taking a swig of it. He grimaced at the candy-cherry flavor of the stuff, and then held it out to Dipper. The other carefully took it and gulped down a fair amount for himself, sighing at the taste. It wasn't great, but it beat a dry mouth any day. He almost drank more, but refrained, handing it back.

"I hope this helps," Gideon said, capping it and sliding it into a pocket. He stood. "Um... need anything else?"

"Freedom would be nice," Bill replied.

"Right. Well, have you two repented for what you've done?"

"I don't regret a single one of those murders," Bill said blankly. "And neither does Dipper, I'm sure. You're punishing us for something that we feel is justified. And you feel justified as well. Neither of us are really winning here."

"Well, maybe after you've gotten to feel some of that stuff you've inflicted on others, you'll be more hesitant to keep doing it, and will instead use more humane methods," Gideon said. "Think about that, and I'm gonna talk to Pavo tomorrow. He's been really enjoying this, so convincing him that you've had enough may be difficult..."

"What did you promise to pay him?" Dipper asked curiously.

"Well, I told him that if he tortures you two, he can have all the magic he wants from both of you. In fact, I pretty much gave him all of Bill's power, because I can't use it myself. Too risky. But yeah, he's doing this for the incredible magic you two have. So I'd have to convince him to just... take it all tomorrow, instead of drawing it out over the course of weeks. I'm sure he can do that though."

Bill nodded. "He should be able to. It's just more difficult. And if he's this sadistic, he's obviously wanting to prolong our suffering. But yes, talk to him."

"I will. I need to go back anyway, I've been practicing some magic of my own lately and I kinda want to test this artifact I found while cleaning out my room... See you two tomorrow." Gideon waved and headed out.

Once the sound of the motorcycle faded into the distance, Bill looked at Dipper with an amused smile.

"And there is our weakest link. If anyone can get us out of here, it'll be him."

Dipper nodded in agreement, snuggling with the other and yawning, trying to ignore the cherry taste still on his tongue. "Yeah. He feels bad for us. He's trying to act like he doesn't, but... he does. Natural sympathy. Or whatever..."

"Yep. Keep your hopes up, Pine Tree. Something tells me this will all be over with very soon, and we can get the medical attention we need, possibly get evidence that Gideon was responsible for this and have him thrown into prison again... we can sleep in actual beds... just wait."

Dipper smiled as he fell asleep. "I can't wait until we're free again."


	14. Burned Out

Burned Out

When morning came, Dipper and Bill were apprehensive, but optimistic. Gideon actually showed up first, taking the chains that bonded the two and leading them outside so they could get their daily relief out of the way early.

It was cold and wet, their bare feet quickly turning numb as they walked across the damp grass, but they still liked being able to stretch out their legs and breathe in fresh air that didn't smell like blood and sweat.

Bill had to be supported; his legs hadn't healed correctly from Gideon breaking them several days ago, so putting weight on them caused incredible pain. It was one of the many things that would have to be fixed once they were freed.

Gideon didn't really talk to them, looking away and going through his phone as he waited for them to finish their business, only responding when the two told him they were done.

He was leading them back inside when Pavonis appeared in a crackle of electricity that made their hair stand on end, and the demon was in his star-shaped form, blinking at them as he flew in a close circle around them.

"Done with your bodily functions?" he asked, voice possessing an eerie second tone that wasn't present in his human form.

Gideon answered. "Yes, I was just taking them back in."

"Good, because I have some fun things planned for them today." Pavonis closed his eye, and more static surrounded him as he shifted into his human form.

Gideon scowled as he fixed his hair. "Hey, I told you that I want-"

"Yes, yes, you want to free them soon. But I need a little more time to get what I want out of them. Do you know just how strong Cipher is? I can't just take his essence all at once, I have to do it carefully."

"How soon do you think you can get it done?" Gideon asked.

Pavonis considered. "Hmm... another week, probably? If I really push it. But it could kill Bill's human vessel. If that's not a concern of ours, then by all means..."

"I don't want to kill it. Just... be careful. Take a little longer if you need to, then... but can we please go easier on them? Pines is still really sick, after all."

Dipper was actually feeling better, but he sniffed loudly anyway, giving Pavonis the most miserable look he could.

Pavonis sighed. "Oh Gleeful, you are too kind... You must have really been brainwashed by those counseling sessions in prison. Fine, I'll reel it in a bit with the human. But Bill is a fellow demon, he can take whatever I do to him. He's apparently had worse." Pavonis gave Bill a rough shove as they went into the cabin, and the other ended up tripping and falling onto the floor with a soft grunt.

Dipper quickly helped him up, but his arms shook; he was weak after so many days with hardly any food, and his limbs were covered in cuts, bruises, and burns anyway. Everything hurt, and the additional strain from pulling Bill to his feet was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

"Thanks," Bill said to him, leaning over to kiss the tears away. Dipper couldn't help looking at Bill's missing eye, biting his lip and trembling. He could only imagine how much that must be hurting the other.

"I have so many great things planned today," Pavonis said brightly, watching Gideon take the two into the room they've been locked up in, moving them a bit away from the previous day's blood puddles and attaching the chains there.

"You always say that," Bill sighed.

Pavonis gestured to Gideon, who handed him the backpack he brought along every day.

"Let's see... ah, here we go. This should be fun." Pavonis took out what looked almost like a scale, except it had a cord and a dial on the front, along with a small plastic bag filled with square black rocks.

"What is this, science class?" Dipper asked, squinting suspiciously at the items. He recognized the device as something he has used in school before.

Pavonis picked up the cord to the burner, holding the plug in his hand. The device powered on when he turned the dial, and a display showed the temperature. "Sure. I'm gonna conduct an experiment. I want to see how long it'll take for a single piece of charcoal to burn through human flesh."

Dipper recoiled. "What the fuck!"

Gideon seemed just as disturbed. "Where uh... where are you putting the charcoal?"

"Dunno yet," Pavonis replied. He chose a piece and set it on the hot plate, watching it slowly heat up. "But I know how this stuff flakes apart as it burns... should be a really interesting result."

Bill couldn't move very far, but he did his best to shelter Dipper behind him. "You are not touching him. Do it to me, but Pine Tree doesn't deserve that."

"I think you both deserve it equally. But if you're volunteering, then by all means... Gideon, choose a thigh and expose it for me."

Gideon turned to Bill, took in a breath, and leaned down to grab the fabric over one of his legs. Though the two captives still wore pants, the clothing was torn to shreds by now, barely hanging on to them. It was really for modesty more than anything. Gideon tore a decent shred of fabric from over one of Bill's thighs, large enough for a piece of charcoal to sit on the flesh.

"I'll do a thigh first... if I like the results, I think I'll let one burn its way into a stomach. Won't that be fun?" Pavonis laughed as he used tongs to prod at the charcoal, waiting for it to grow hot enough.

Bill swallowed but didn't show his worry. He felt Dipper's hand move into his and gave him a glance.

"It'll all be over soon," Dipper assured him quietly. "We can get through it."

Bill swallowed and nodded, looking forward again. Soon. He had to believe that.

* * *

The charcoal torture was excruciating, and Bill wasn't the only one who had to suffer it. The piece had burnt through the skin and sunk deep into the meat of Bill's thigh, and it was actually pressing against the bone when Pavonis used the tongs to grind the charcoal into powder, at which point it finally cooled and dispersed. What was still in the wound, Pavonis left as he set another piece burning to use on Dipper.

It was one of the few tortures that actually had Bill crying, not really by choice; his vessel was in so much pain that it was a natural response, and Bill hated every desperate cry and plead that came from his mouth as he endured the agony.

His thigh felt like it was on fire when Pavonis turned away from him to heat a new piece, and he cussed out the demon with every vile word he could think of, including several in dead languages. He didn't stop until it became apparent that the next piece was not for him, and he switched to begging, not wanting Dipper to suffer it, knowing he wouldn't be able to handle it, but Pavonis didn't care.

The torture was enough to make the boy pass out, and Pavonis sighed as he knocked the coal away, and proceeded to strike Dipper across the face with the hot tongs as he tried to wake him up.

Once he got the human to open his eyes, he started on him again, this time slapping him every time he seemed about to black out, keeping him awake and terrified the whole time. After that, Pavonis proceeded to use up the entire bag he had brought, and the two were covered with disgusting, large burnt holes by the time he was done.

Gideon seemed sick to his stomach, and called for a stop as soon as the last piece was dust.

"Yeah, they do look pretty awful already," Pavonis laughed as he stood and looked the two over, appreciating how they were curled up and trembling, tears streaming down their faces. Dipper was openly sobbing while Bill's jaw was clenched, the demon ignoring his pain enough to hold the other close with his arms. There was very little blood from this; the charcoal had cauterized any veins it broke.

"I told you I didn't want to do things like this, this is horrible, I... I think I need a moment." Breathing shakily, sickened by the smell of burnt flesh, Gideon went over to the window and leaned out.

"Okay, take your moment, I'm gonna go outside and clear up my sinuses, it really does smell awful in here." Pavonis didn't leave right away though, instead pausing right outside the door to pick something up. "And when I get back, I'm gonna have some fun with this." He pulled a saw into the room, and Dipper and Bill gasped at the sight of it, holding each other more tightly.

Pavonis laughed, tossing the saw onto the floor and walking out.

"B-Bill, I can't do this anymore, I... I want to die," Dipper choked out, burying his face against Bill's chest. "Everything hurts, it feels like I can barely breathe, I'm sick and starving and I j-just want to die so it will all go away..."

"Pine Tree, no, don't say that." Bill kissed him. "We'll get through it, please don't just give up, and especially don't say that you want to die. You have so much to live for... listen, when we get out, we'll take care of the pain. We'll go to the hospital and be treated. It'll suck for a while but anything will be better than this. Then we can go back to the Mystery Shack, keep doing our tours and magic shows... Soos and Melody will be having their baby by next month! In only a few weeks, Dipper! Aren't you excited? Don't you want to see their little girl?"

Dipper sniffed, nodding a bit as he thought about that. "Y-yeah, I am really looking forward to seeing her..."

"And!" Bill pressed on, relieved that Dipper wasn't shaking as much, "Your sister is in town! You're going to see her when we get out! You can't give up, not with Shooting Star waiting on you! You don't want to leave her behind, do you?"

"No, I don't, I... I want to see Mabel again."

"Of course you do, I want to see her too. So please, stay strong, and stay alive. It would be so easy for us to just die, but we can't. Not yet. We have a long life ahead of us, a life together, I want to enjoy it."

Dipper took in a slow breath, exhaled, and said, "I'm sorry. I just want the pain to end."

"I know... I do too. This is all really awful, isn't it? Tell you what... from now on... no more vigilante. Just... we'll deal with the people who have betrayed me alone. And we won't torture them, we'll just... take exactly what they owe. That's all. If a death is needed, we'll just do it quick and move on. Okay?"

"Okay..." Dipper wanted to sleep, but he knew he wouldn't be able to now. Instead, he glanced over his shoulder at Gideon, who was watching the pair.

"I feel awful," the other said, fiddling nervously with his rings. "Look, I... I don't want to see you suffering anymore. And... if you promise to do what you said, not torture people anymore, just... I'll let you go. How about that?"

"If you can let us go, we would love that," Bill said.

Gideon nodded, eyes briefly darting toward the saw, and then walked toward them. "Okay. But Pavonis ain't gonna like it."

"I don't care, get us out of here."

Gideon looked nervously at the window, and then knelt next to Bill, reaching for his collar. His fingers were able to pass the electrical barrier, and he pressed against a few runes, muttering something. There was a spark and he flinched. "Ah... I don't quite know everything about these... I just helped. But I'll try to get them off. I'm just an amateur at magic, nothing like you, Dipper."

But Gideon managed to unlock the collar, and a seam appeared, allowing him to separate it and drop it. The moment it lost contact with Bill's neck, the demon felt magic surge back into him, and he gasped, remaining eye widening as it all returned. Vision flared as he once again saw the Mindscape, senses sharpening to their previous state, and he felt the current of energy that flowed through the entire universe, that the talented could draw on for magic, and that demons could always feel.

He laughed giddily, blinking and holding up a hand, cyan flames bursting from it. They weren't as strong as he could usually make them, he was still weak, but it was something!

"Pine Tree! Hold on, let me take care of you!" Bill grabbed Dipper's collar, easily breaking it with magic, pulling it off and hurling it to the other side of the room.

Dipper's body went rigid, eyes also widening as he was able to access his magic again, irises briefly taking on a golden glow before he raised his hand, making a flame much like Bill's, grinning as the yellow flames danced over his fingers. "I can use my magic! Bill, I can use magic again!"

Bill grinned too, hugging him tightly, almost sobbing as he realized he could hear his partner's thoughts again. And Dipper realized this too, and their minds seemed to embrace as well, exchanging thought and emotion, and though the shared memories of their respective tortures was agonizing, it only brought them closer together.

"Oh, oh hold on, let me heal you!" Bill said quickly.

"Wait, you two are really weak," Gideon interrupted. "I'll do it. I may not be the best, but I can do this." He hesitated, then reached into his pocket and took out what looked like a bracelet made of strange red pearls. He slipped it over his wrist, and the stones glowed as he lifted his hands. "Magical artifact," he explained. "Like my old bolo tie. Who first?"

"Dipper, heal Dipper," Bill said instantly. "But quick, before Pavonis returns." With his perception returned, he was able to watch the other demon as he paced outside, stretching and occasionally messing with Gideon's motorcycle. He couldn't read another demon's mind without actively using a spell, so he had to watch body language to get an idea of when the other may return.

Gideon nodded and turned to Dipper as the boy separated from Bill to sit in front of him. "Okay, Pines, what first?"

"All these wounds from the charcoal, please, before they get infected."

"Right, let's see." Gideon took in a breath, and began whispering Latin as he moved his hands over the wounds. His eyes took on an unsettling red glow, but the magic seemed neutral enough, just doing what it was ordered to do. As he passed over each hole, it closed, bringing relief. Once all of them were closed, he moved on to anything that looked infected, and the skin cleared, pain fading, cuts closing up into pale scars.

"Oh, my hands and feet, please," Dipper said, pulling the bandages off and flinching as they tugged on his skin.

"Oh man, hurry," Bill said as he sensed Pavonis start to walk back to the house.

Gideon quickly healed the puncture wounds from the nails, and Dipper struggled to his feet. Bill got up too, hissing at the pain in his legs.

"Cipher, let me fix your legs, you won't be able to run on them like that," Gideon said urgently.

"I won't need to run, give me the key to your motorcycle."

"My motorcycle? My father bought that for me as a reward for being released from prison, you can't just-"

"The key, Gleeful!" Bill yelled.

Gideon glared at him but gave him the key.

"We'll buy you another!" Dipper shouted, wrapping an arm around Bill to support him as they ran out. They stumbled and almost fell several times, but they were invigorated by their new freedom, adrenaline rushing through them from the excitement.

They passed Pavonis at the door, and the psychic jerked back, staring at them in shock. "What the- hey!" He started after them, but they were quick to mount the motorcycle, Bill kicking the kickstand up and starting it, as Dipper sat behind him and tightly held onto his waist. In seconds, the vehicle was revving up and shooting off through the trees, following the barely noticeable path that would hopefully take them out of the forest.

Pavonis's eyes glowed purple, and he whipped toward Gideon as the human came up next to him, grabbing him by the neck.

"You let them go?!" he demanded, fingers digging in hard enough to choke the other.

"I-I had enough," Gideon managed, face turning red. "What you had planned for t-today would have killed them... I couldn't let it continue." His fingers scrabbled desperately at the back of Pavonis's hands.

The psychic snarled and threw the other hard against the outside wall of the cabin, turning in the direction that the two had fled. "You still owe me all of Cipher's magic. I'm going to get it, and when I get back, you are going to suffer in their place." He took off running, almost as fast as a motorcycle himself, disappearing into the woods.

Gideon wheezed as he got up, grasping his bracelet as he ran after the other. He wasn't as fast, but he was determined to catch up. One way or another, he had to be there to see how this ended.


	15. Taking a Stand

Taking a Stand

Bill's driven a motorcycle maybe once before. He's inhabited a lot of human bodies over the years but in the grand scheme of things, motorcycles were relatively new. So he never really had an opportunity to use one. If he has, it was an older kind. This high horsepower device with its bright blue paint job was a work of art, and he was expecting it to crash into something at any moment.

He couldn't drive anywhere near as fast as he knew it could go, having to maneuver around trees, following a faint path of pressed down grass from Gideon's previous trips to and from the cabin, while also watching out for roots or bushes that could potentially turn over the motorcycle.

It seemed that his strength returned with each passing moment, and he could hear Dipper behind him murmuring spells, magic flowing from surrounding trees as the boy healed himself, relying on nature magic rather than his own right now. Bill was proud of his resilience.

Then he felt Dipper's hands shift from his waist, sliding down to his legs, and he glanced down in time to see gold magic flow from the boy's hands and into his skin. There was creaking in his bones, a sensation that was almost painful, but then there was relief, and he realized that the other had fixed the damage from the crowbar.

 _Thank you_ , he thought to him, and couldn't help but laugh as he heard the other's voice respond to him, feeling his joy.

 _You're welcome._ Dipper's arms linked back around him, and he felt the human rest his face against the back of his neck. _Need me to do anything else for you?_

 _Fix the charcoal damage. Please. If you can._

 _Got it._ Dipper's hands began tracing over his body, and each time they found one of the deep wounds, they would pause to extract the dust that still lingered and then fill in the holes. It took a few minutes, but he got it all, and began looking for any other major damage.

 _Save your energy. Something tells me we may need it._

 _For what?_

 _He's following us._

Dipper didn't need to be told who 'he' was. He looked over his shoulder, seeing a purple glow behind them, and as he carefully extended his awareness, recoiled at what was almost a static shock to his mind. Pavonis.

 _He's in his demon form and he is_ _ **pissed**_ _. And he'll catch up to us very soon... I hope you're prepared to fight._

Dipper didn't feel at all ready to fight, he was still in pain and exhausted, sick and hungry and cold, but he would do it if he had to. He checked to make sure he remembered the demon killing spell, and to his relief, he did. He would need it.

 _Killing him will be hard, but I believe in you. I'll try to bring him down so you can use the spell. Don't rush so much that you make mistakes, but I want you to do it as fast as you can. Got it?_

 _Got it._

 _Okay. Hold on, I'm going to try and drive faster._ Bill carefully turned the handle, increasing the speed, but the bike was beginning to rattle, and the turns he was having to make to avoid trees were much too sharp for it. He ended up losing control, as one handle slammed into a tree and knocked the entire bike off balance, sending it spinning and dislodging its riders.

"Dipper!" Bill called out loud, managing to grab onto Dipper and stop them in midair. It put a strain on his limited magic, but he lowered them safely to the ground. They dropped into the grass, hearts pounding but otherwise okay. Looking at the motorcycle, they saw that it was laying against a tree, dented and with fluids leaking out of the motor. Possibly repairable, but it wouldn't be going anywhere right now.

"Fighting, then." Dipper stood up, stretching his arms and drawing on his magic, disappointed with how little he had access to, and deciding that it would be necessary to dip into the reserves. He could tell Bill was doing the same, and as he looked at his partner's determined expression, he got the feeling they would come out on top of this battle.

Until Pavonis actually tore his way through the trees and came into view, his eye narrowed, electricity flying from his star-shaped form as he floated down in front of them. His multiple colors occasionally flashed darker, but it seemed that he was trying to control himself.

"You two thought you would get away that easily?" he snarled, showing the first true anger that they've ever seen from him. He was still quiet, but his words dripped with hate. "I was promised Cipher's demonhood, and Pines's magic. I am going to get what I was promised."

"Then try to take it," Dipper challenged.

Without any further statements, Pavonis hurled a bolt of electricity at him, too fast for him to physically react, but Dipper's thoughts were just fast enough for him to divert it away from himself and send it flying into a tree instead. Then he retaliated with a blast of fire, and the other barely managed to dodge it.

Predicting which direction Pavonis was going to go, Bill was already waiting with his own stream of fire, which the other flew right into.

Pavonis shouted out in pain and swung his arm up, forcing the magic to disperse. He took a moment to collect himself, then came at them again, now using his telekinesis to lift both of them and repeatedly slam them into the ground.

Dipper cried out as a few of his ribs, cracked from previous abuse, broke completely and dug into his lungs. He couldn't focus enough for a spell, but luckily, Bill could. Bill concentrated and thrust his hands forward, and a concussive blast of air slammed into Pavonis, knocking him back several feet and interrupting his magic. The two were dropped to the ground.

"Pine Tree!" Bill called, but Dipper struggled to his feet, wincing.

"I-I can heal it later, just- Bill watch out!"

Bill was struck by lightning from Pavonis's palm, body thrown back, not stopping until it hit a tree and collapsed.

Dipper heard a furious snarl in his head. _Okay, fuck this._

Bill emerged from the body in his demon form, glowing a harsh red, intense flames covering his arms as the whites of his eye darkened to black, pupil becoming white. Now separated from the injured body, his thoughts were so much clearer, and he could give all his attention to his magic. He attacked Pavonis with everything he had, and the two demons were soon flying around each other, magical fire and electricity shooting between them, the air itself crackling with their energy.

Dipper helped however he could, but they were moving too fast for him to keep up with, and he didn't want to accidentally hit Bill. He could tell his partner was weakening; a lot had been taken out of him. He shouted encouragement to him, and silently told him techniques to try, but while Pavonis was taking some serious hits, it wasn't enough to stop him, and they were at it for nearly ten minutes.

Then the two suddenly came to a stop, backing off and staring at each other for a while, smoke and bits of energy curling off their forms.

Dipper could sense Bill's exhaustion, which worried him; Bill never felt that in his demon form. He saw him flicker slightly, and heard his voice in his head. _It's getting harder to stay in reality. If this keeps up, I'll have to return to the Mindscape... or to the vessel. Pine Tree, he's stronger than I thought. You may have to just do the spell._

 _But he's too quick, he'll avoid it!_

 _Not if we slow him down. You know something for that, right? Do it. Don't even warn him, just use a deceleration enchantment and then immediately begin the spell. I'll keep him distracted while you do._

 _I don't want to hurt you._

 _Only focus on him and you won't hurt me. I trust you._

Dipper gave him a silent acknowledgment before attacking Pavonis, who wasn't prepared for the spell that was blasted at him. His reflexes were fast, but he just barely started to raise his arms before the magic hit him, and he found himself feeling sluggish, hovering suddenly an incredible chore, and he sank down a few feet.

"Come here, you bastard!" Bill yelled, physically assaulting him with his fists, and the other fought back. But his strikes were slow, and Bill could easily block them. They ended up landing on the ground, rolling and tussling with each other, shouting in various languages and casting whatever spells they could, but while they were hurting each other, it wouldn't be enough to actually stop one of them. They were too evenly matched.

Dipper was nervous, but he started his own spell, shouting out the words as he had been directed to, feeling magic buzz through his body, responding to the ancient language. He focused entirely on Pavonis, eyes trained on him, but something was wrong. It felt like his magic was fizzling out, his head aching, a kind of burn in his fingertips, racing up his arms as though he was trying to lift something that was much too heavy for him. He's only felt this a few times before, but it scared him when he recognized it. He didn't have enough strength for this task. Pavonis was too powerful of a target.

He mentally cried out to Bill for help, and the dream demon looked up immediately and flew over to him.

"You can do it Pine Tree, keep going, use all your reserves if you have to!" He hovered next to the human and grabbed his hand with both of his, body returning to its yellow color and glowing brightly as he gave the other his strength.

Dipper's eyes widened, pupils dilating and irises glowing blue as the more demonic magic coursed through him. Now he felt more confident, could feel his words having an effect, and Pavonis visibly shuddered.

"What are you..." Pavonis squinted, then recoiled, body darkening into several dark, muddy colors, magic taking on an almost black appearance. "No!" He shot bolts of electricity, but they were unnaturally slow. Still very fast, but slow enough that Bill could deflect them, all while letting Dipper have his magic. While his hand was still out, Bill struck the other with fire, which dazed him for a few moments. Then he grabbed onto Dipper's hand again, watching him carefully as he continued speaking. Just a few more seconds... but did the human look tired?

Bill felt a sinking sensation as Dipper's eyes drooped, a few words slurring; he was losing focus. The spell was demanding a huge amount of energy, and while Pavonis was writhing and clearly in pain, the chance of Dipper managing to actually kill him seemed slim. This was going to backfire, Dipper was going to pass out and Pavonis was going to recover and keep up his attack.

And Bill knew that he didn't have the strength to keep fighting for long. He would have to retreat into the Mindscape, and then what would Pavonis do? Possibly torture Dipper again, or kill him.

He closed his eye, mentally berating himself. No, he had to believe in his partner. Dipper could do this. He would pull this off. Even if it seemed impossible. His human was amazing.

Dipper himself knew that it was hopeless, though. Has known for a while now. He has never taken on a demon as powerful as Pavonis with this spell, knew it was tearing every bit of strength out of him, but something kept him going, kept him dutifully reciting the words as though on autopilot, and he had closed his eyes by now, resigned to his fate. At least he would black out over grass. Maybe this would at least hurt Pavonis so badly that Bill would finish him off. And if not... at least they would go down fighting. He couldn't ask for more, really.

Last words now. One more second and it would be over, at least for him. He took as much of Bill's power as he could, enjoying how it burned through him before he directed it back out, and as he was finishing the sentence, he felt a hand press to his back. A hand that couldn't possibly be Bill's, since he knew both of the demon's were holding his.

But there was a fresh surge of energy, just enough to wake him up, and he opened his eyes and focused everything he had on Pavonis, feeling the power explode forward, in a blinding light that shifted between cyan, gold, and strangely, a bit of red. It surrounded the psychic, who screamed, unable to escape the magic that filled the area.

Dipper could feel the magic literally ripping the other apart just as it has any other demon he used it on, and his heart leapt at those pained screams. His elation quickly made way for anger, and he grinned savagely as he furiously tore into his foe. Toward the end, he even thought he heard begging, and then the light disappeared and all that remained was Pavonis's soul, shattered and beginning to fade away. Too exhausted to think straight, Dipper stepped forward, spitefully absorbing it for himself.

He realized his mistake the moment the energy sunk into him, but it was too late; agony sliced through him, an agony he hasn't felt since the first time he ever absorbed a soul, but so much worse, it cut through his head and heart and limbs and brought him to his knees, screaming and clutching his temples. Bill cried out in alarm and grasped at him, and there seemed to be another person touching him too, but he didn't pay attention. He couldn't focus. He collapsed to the ground, continuing to hold his head, now feeling blood pour out of his nostrils, body writhing. He soon began choking as blood bubbled up his throat, vision turning red and then black, and as Bill's hands started to cradle his cheeks and turn his face skyward, he finally, blissfully passed out.


	16. Everything is Different Now

Everything is Different Now

"He's... he's going to wake up soon, isn't he?"

"Yes, Shooting Star, it should be any moment now. I can't get into his head like before, but I can tell he'll be awake soon."

"Should I be here when he does?"

"Hm, _you_ may want to take a few steps back, I'm not sure how he's going to react to you."

"Yeah, you're right, I'll back up."

Dipper groaned as he heard the voices speaking, limbs shifting as he gained awareness of his surroundings. He felt surprisingly good considering what he had gone through recently, and as he opened his eyes, he felt the reassuring presence of Bill's thoughts.

"Hey, you're awake!" Bill was leaning over him, smiling, back in his human body. It looked really beat up, but nowhere near as bad as it was before. A few tears slipped down his face as he leaned down to kiss Dipper gently.

Dipper chuckled and responded, but soon pulled back, blinking and staring at Bill curiously. Everything seemed too bright. Not bright, exactly, but too... detailed, was a better word? It was hard to describe, but it seemed that his vision was sharper. He could make out every little fleck of brown in Bill's gold iris, could see the pores on his skin, every little scarred ridge he possessed.

As he was puzzling over that, Bill stepped aside and he was promptly jumped on by Mabel.

"Dipper, you're okay, I was so worried!" She hugged him tightly, and he leaned up to hug her back, now glancing around and realizing he was in his room in the Mystery Shack, laying on the bed. The familiar room helped him relax, but again, things seemed too clear, too detailed. Should he really be able to make out the grains of wood on the dresser from here?

Deciding not to worry about it right now, he nestled his face into his sister's long, soft hair, laughing a bit as he smelled vanilla. Still using that same old shampoo that she has for years.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said, working his jaw a bit as it felt odd, but it didn't seem broken. "It's weird, I actually feel... really good, despite... what I've been through. Um..." He leaned back, looking at her concerned face. "How much do you know?"

She frowned. "Bill told me everything. You and him were caught by Gideon and this other demon and tortured. As punishment for your... for what you've been doing."

He nodded. "Yeah. Well, they did a lot of horrible things to us, yet... I feel fine, there's not even any pain, it's so..." Dipper stopped as he held out one of his arms to look at. He stared at it, speechless. His skin was much paler than its ever been, and his fingers were thin and ended in blue _claws_. He quickly looked at his other arm, flexing that hand. It was the same. Not only were his smallest fingers there despite being cut off before, but they were spindly and clawed like the rest.

"Pine Tree, you may need to take a moment," Bill said softly.

"I... what..." Dipper reached up to touch his face, feeling along it, and when he got to his ears, he bolted up and ran for the bathroom, hardly noticing the third person in the room as he shoved past him.

He banged into a few door frames on the way, but was running much more quickly than he ever has before, and made it into the bathroom in about three seconds. He flicked the lights on and looked at himself in the mirror, before recoiling and screaming.

"Dipper!" Bill ran in as he was clutching the counter and hyperventilating, staring at his reflection in disbelief.

"I... what..." Dipper reached up with a hand to touch one of his ears, confirming that its tip was pointed, but he was soon staring at his eyes in a mix of fascination and horror. His sclera had become pitch black, pupils slit-shaped, and his irises were a deep blue. He swallowed as he saw that the rest of his skin was as pale as his arms had been, and there were strange freckles of blue in some areas, such as his cheeks and shoulders, almost seeming to glow.

He brushed his fingers back through his hair, which was thankfully the same as it has been, just messy and oily after not being washed or brushed for days. His jaw had become sharper, chin a bit narrower, facial hair gone. He felt along his jaw just to make sure, but there wasn't even a hint of stubble. Luckily, it didn't make him look younger like he usually did when he was clean shaven; in fact, he looked several years older.

"What is..." Now he saw his teeth, and he quickly opened his mouth wider to look at them. His incisors had sharpened, and his enamel was now a perfect, clean white that he hasn't seen on his teeth since he was very young. He ran his tongue along them, and they all seemed sharper, even his molars. His tongue itself was normal-looking, thankfully.

"Pine Tree, are you... okay?" Bill asked quietly.

Dipper whipped toward him, grabbing his shoulders. "Bill, what am I?!" He glanced at his reflection again, and then saw something on his back that made him jump, twisting to try and look with his own eyes. "What is that?!"

"Ah... those would be wings."

"Wings?!" The moment Dipper acknowledged them, the new limbs stretched out, and he saw that it was a pair of black, leathery wings like those of a bat, sticking out of his back as though they belonged there. He turned to the mirror, seeing them rise up over his shoulders, and when he flinched at the sight, they folded back down.

"Look, if you would just relax, I can try to explain..." Bill started, but Mabel pushed her way into the room and walked past him to grab Dipper into her arms, hugging him tightly.

"You're okay, it's no big deal," she assured him, rubbing his back below where the skins of the wings connected, and despite how distressed he was, he relaxed into her hold. "You're just, well... different now."

"I can see that," he muttered. "Please tell me I don't have a... a tail or something?"

She laughed. "No, you don't have a tail."

"Good." Dipper leaned into her hold, and looked over her shoulder at the doorway as someone else walked into view. He narrowed his eyes. "Gideon."

Gideon raised his hands defensively, standing a good distance back. "I just wanted to see how you were, if you want me to leave, I can leave."

"What is he doing here?" Dipper growled, looking over at Bill.

Bill shrugged. "He refused to leave until you woke up. Ask him why he's still here."

"Oh, I will." Dipper pulled away from Mabel and walked toward Gideon, who wisely decided to back away.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing, I had to know what happened, I've never seen a human do what you did and I wanted to see the effect it would have." Gideon's back hit a wall and he quickly looked around for an escape route.

"So after everything you did to me, and to Bill, you thought it'd be a good idea to wait until I woke up? You're a fool."

"I don't mean you anymore harm, just please... Bill, stop him!"

Bill came over to take Dipper's hand, pulling him away. "Pine Tree, please, we need to talk. I get that you're angry, but we have to talk about what happened. You're... you're not the same."

"Yeah, I noticed," Dipper snapped, but he let Bill coax him away from Gideon. He turned to the other, who took his other hand, winding their fingers together. "What am I? Why do I look like this?"

"After you killed Pavonis, his soul was ripped from his form and left abandoned. It would have dispersed on its own, or I would have taken it. But you were angry and vengeful, and you did what I had told you not to do. You took it for yourself, as though it was just another one of our normal kills, and..." Bill sighed, letting go of Dipper's hands so he could caress his shoulders. "It overwhelmed you. Its power was too much, all that raw demonic energy passing through you just destroyed your body, you were bleeding out nearly every orifice when you lost consciousness, which was lucky I suppose, because then you didn't have to feel the rest... as your skin was stripped and then replaced, as you were healed in fire, as the soul changed you into something that better suited it. No mortal could contain such energy... so it took your mortality. It took your humanity. You... aren't a human anymore. You're still you in a way, you have your memories and personality, somewhat look the same, but... you're a new being." Bill met his eyes. "You're a demon."

Dipper slowly backed away from him. "No... no, I can't..."

"Yes, you can, and you are. You killed a demon and took its soul. As is our way, you became one yourself. And one as powerful as Pavonis... you're going to get a lot of respect. You're certainly going to be stronger than most new demons. You should have abilities similar to his, but demonhood manifests differently in everyone. We'll see in time what power you have. But you should still be capable of every spell you already know."

"I'm a demon, but I..." Dipper looked at his talon-like hands, and then over his shoulder at one of his wings, unfolding it and stretching it around so he could grasp it. He had sensation in the new limb, was perfectly aware that it was being touched, could control it like he could an arm or leg. "I don't feel so different, I mean I can hear and see better I think, but..."

"You'll have other new senses. It might take a while for you to notice them, though." Bill smiled at him. "I'll help you out with that later. For now, I think we all have a lot of talking to do."

"I think you need to go to the hospital," Dipper replied. "I might be okay now, but your vessel is human. It needs medical care."

Bill glanced down at himself, then shrugged. "It'll deal with it."

"Especially your eye, that could get infected." Dipper gestured to the empty eye socket, which really wasn't looking too good.

Bill gingerly touched the area. "Yeah... maybe I should go to the hospital... but I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm great. Never felt better." Dipper smiled as Mabel came over to touch his shoulder, but he soon looked at Gideon, eyes narrowing. "So what are we gonna do with him?"

"Thank him for letting us go," Bill replied.

"He may have let us go, but he was one of the ones torturing us! I'm not going to just forgive him because he felt bad about it and let us go!"

"He also gave you that last burst of energy you needed to kill Pavonis."

That made Dipper pause. "What?"

Gideon reached into his pocket, taking out the bracelet from before. It was no longer red; all its stones were pale, almost clear. "I gave you everything this artifact had," he said. "I caught up to you right at the end of the fight, as you were using that spell on Pavo, and I could tell that you didn't have enough strength for it. So I decided to help. I didn't know if it would make a difference, but I transferred the power to you anyway... and I guess it was just what you needed, because you killed him."

Dipper looked at the bracelet, remembering how the magic had beams of red in it along with the other colors. "Oh. Yeah, I remember feeling a hand on me... that was you?"

"It was me."

"Wow. Um... thank you. That really helped, I don't think I could have done it without you. Yeah, thanks a lot."

"No problem." Gideon nervously fiddled with the bracelet. "I honestly just felt so terrible about what I had done to both of you. I was just so angry, I wanted to get revenge on behalf of all those people you had hurt or killed, but... I understand now why you were going after them, and though I don't agree with your methods, it doesn't make me any better than you to punish you for it. I learned a lot in prison about settling things peacefully, and I was going against those lessons. I was supposed to be a better person, right? So I had to put a stop to it. I probably deserve to go back to prison after all that, and if you two want to turn me in, I'll confess. I just... wanted to try and make things up to you."

Dipper sighed, rubbing his head. "I don't want to forgive you. The things you did to me, and to Bill, were horrible. I'm never going to forget any of that, I'm probably going to have nightmares about it, though my scars are gone, I'm always going to remember it. And I know Bill will never forget either. His vessel is going to be permanently marked. Unless he decides to fix it somehow, he's going to have to deal with a half-blind body, because of what Pavonis did. You were easier on us than Pavonis was, but he was acting under your orders. So you are just as responsible. But you did save us. You felt remorse and decided to let us go. So... while it doesn't make things okay, I suppose I can let you live. Granted that you never try this again. We are going to keep doing what we were doing before, and I expect you to deal with it."

Gideon nodded. "Yes. I will. I'm just going to move on. Go back to school, try to get a job... see if I can fix up my life. Dad needs some help with the car dealership anyway, maybe I can earn enough to fix my motorcycle. You two demolished it."

"That tree just came out of nowhere," Bill said with a shrug.

Dipper held out his hand to Gideon, gesturing to the bracelet. When the boy gave it to him, he examined it, and said, "This is a really interesting piece of jewelry. I'm glad you had it. We might have lost, otherwise. And I don't want to know what Pavonis would have done to us then."

"Probably would have killed you," Gideon replied. "And then tortured me."

"Probably. He was a very sadistic person... he was enjoying what he was doing to us far too much."

"I didn't know he had that kind of hatred in him," Bill said. "He was usually so calm... I guess he was just enjoying hurting us. He wanted our power, he wanted to see us miserable, and he took things way too far. It's easy for a demon to get overexcited. Especially a young one like that."

"Yeah." Dipper traced his fingers along the bracelet, and got an idea. He focused, and slowly, each of the stones began glowing a soft yellow color. Once they were all glowing, he handed the bracelet to Gideon. "Here. My thanks for helping us."

"Oh goodness, is this... your magic?" Gideon slipped it around his wrist, admiring it. "It's so soft."

"I have a very calm type of magic, apparently. But yes, that's mine. You can use it for whatever you need, but it's quite good with healing. You never know when you'll need that."

Gideon nodded, tugging the sleeve of his jacket down over the bracelet. "I'm sure I will have a use for it. Thank you, Dipper. And I wish you luck with... you know, this."

Dipper glanced down at himself and shrugged. "I'm sure I'll get used to it. Thank you."

Gideon awkwardly patted his arm, then held his hand out to Bill.

Bill looked at it, and then glared at him. "I don't think you'd want to shake my hand, unless you're willing to lose a few fingers."

Gideon dropped his hand and looked at Mabel. He offered her a smile. "Anything for me, sugar? A handshake, a hug, maybe a kiss on the cheek?"

She shoved him. "Get out of here before I kick your ass!"

"Fine, I'm leaving!" He huffed and headed for the stairs, calling back, "Tell Blondie I said hi and that she better appreciate having you for a girlfriend!" He hurried downstairs.

Mabel crossed her arms. "We should throw him back in prison."

"Trust me, I'm thinking about it." Dipper slid his arm around Bill's, looking him over. "Okay, let's get you to the hospital now."

"Are you sure you want to go out looking like that?" Bill asked.

Dipper blinked, ears giving a self-conscious twitch. "Well, it's not like I can change it... can I?"

"Of course you can. You can make your eyes look normal, round out your ears, and get rid of those wings. It'll burn up energy while you're doing it, but you should be able to maintain it for a while."

"All right then. Tell me what to do." Dipper and Bill went to the bathroom so Dipper could see his reflection, and the other walked him through adjusting his appearance so that he seemed human again. He still looked pale, and those blue freckles were pretty obvious, but he decided not to mess with those. This was Gravity Falls, no one would care too much.

When Dipper was satisfied with his appearance, he left the bathroom, and he and Bill went to their room to tug on some clean, warm clothes before rejoining Mabel, and the three headed outside.

The air was cold but the Sun was high and bright, and Dipper inhaled the fresh air and sighed, enjoying the scent of evergreen trees in the nearby forest, appreciating even the sound of grass crunching under his shoes.

Mabel offered to drive them to the hospital in her car, and they didn't argue, getting into the backseat with each other so they could snuggle up and relax, enjoying their freedom. Dipper had plenty of concerns about being a demon now, but he didn't let himself worry right now. This moment was for relaxing. He put his apprehension aside and just let himself rest in Bill's arms, head leaning against him, speaking with him through their thoughts, enjoying the movements of the other's hand on his back, and also enjoying the sound of his sister's voice as she called Pacifica to tell her about everything that had happened. Part of him wanted revenge against Gideon, but that wouldn't change anything. What would killing him prove? Nothing, really. He was content to just let the boy go, let him try to better himself, and have a successful life untarnished by this past unpleasant week.

Maybe Dipper was being too forgiving. But he had more important things to think about right now. Like how much permanent damage Bill's vessel was probably going to have. Like how he probably had a whole lot of new abilities he would have to discover and then get used to as a demon. Like the loving sister he had to catch up with and thank for being so understanding of all of this. Gideon was honestly the least of his concerns right now.

 _Besides,_ he joked to Bill, who had been listening in on all of his musing, _It's not like I haven't accepted worse, huh?_

Bill chuckled and kissed him. _Exactly. You don't have to forgive Gideon, but by all means... you can leave it in the past. Accept that he regrets it, appreciate how he helped us... and then forget about him. He'll live his life, and we'll live ours. We don't ever have to talk to him again, if you don't want to._

 _I definitely don't want to. But I don't want to let him go so easily... can you give him some horrible, painful nightmares for me?_

 _Of course. I was just planning some out. I'll make sure he's sorry for every last thing he put us through._

Dipper grinned, pressing his lips to Bill's cheek. _Good. Thank you._

 _No problem, it's what I do. Now, I think I'm gonna let my vessel sleep for the rest of the trip... and I've gotten kinda used to dreaming, so I think I'm gonna sleep with it. Wake me up when we get there._

 _Sure._

Dipper watched Bill fall asleep, and then looked at his sister, who was still talking to Pacifica. She was using the car's Bluetooth system, so he could hear Pacifica's voice through the speakers, and decided to speak up.

"How are you doing, Paz?" he called.

"Oh, hey Dipper," she replied. "I'm great, and how are you?"

"Better. You know, now that I'm back home."

"Yeah, Mabel told me about everything... how are you going to explain where you've been? Are you going to turn in Gideon, or...?"

Dipper shook his head, then remembered that she couldn't see that. "No, just... we were in a freak bear attack out in the woods and it took us this long to get home. That's our story."

"A bear attack? Dipper, really..."

"Several bears. Oh, so many bears. We're lucky to be alive, honestly."

She made a soft 'tsk' sound. "Well, people trust you. They'll believe it. I hope you two are gonna be okay, though."

"Oh yeah, we'll be fine. We've got our magic, we've got each other... everything will be fine."

"I hope so. Let me know if you need anything, though."

"I will. So how's college been?"

"Oh, great! The fall semester is almost over but I'm working on this final project..." Pacifica soon went into detail about the things she's done in school, and Mabel added her own tidbits, and Dipper let them do most of the talking, smiling at the cute compliments the girls occasionally passed to each other, and thinking about how happy he was to have things returning to normal. He couldn't wait until Bill was fully healed and they could return to the life they had before they were captured.

This experience has only brought them closer together, and Dipper was optimistic about the future.


	17. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Still stuck here, huh?" Dipper asked as he flopped onto the bed next to Bill.

"Unfortunately," Bill replied with a sigh, setting aside the book he was reading. "They said there's a lot of internal and external damage, it'll take a while to recover. They're having to give me a lot of antibiotics as well, apparently I have quite a few infections. Not really surprised."

Dipper chuckled as he looked over the various things attached to his partner, and up at the nearby heart monitor. "Well, at least you don't have to stay in the body."

"No but it heals more quickly if I'm in it feeding it energy. And I have to be in it enough to actually look alive." Bill looked at Dipper as the other's appearance shifted, eyes returning to their demonic shape and color, wings stretching from his back. "Getting used to your new body?"

"Yeah, I've been practicing flying with these bad boys." Dipper gave the wings a slow flap. "It's pretty fun."

"Great. How's your magic been?"

"My magic's been really good, in fact it's never been easier. I've kept the Shack open and have been doing shows in your place. People love it, but I think they miss you. You're much more charismatic than me."

"Heh, well, tell them I'll be back and joining in as soon as I can." Bill reached up to run his fingers down one of Dipper's wings, feeling the leather. "It's interesting that these manifested for you... nearly every demon can fly of course, but you actually having wings is pretty unique. I just use my will. So did Pavonis. I think in time, you won't even need these. They're probably mostly for show..."

"Yeah, I can still levitate if I want to. But I like physically flapping these. It just seems more fun having to actually learn how to fly, how I have to angle them and stuff like that."

"Oh, I totally understand." Bill moved his hand around to stroke Dipper's cheek, admiring his eyes. "I love how your eyes look now. Very pretty."

"Thank you. I think they look cool too." Dipper looked at Bill's eye patch. "It's gonna be hard getting used to you only having one now."

"Eh, that's the way my normal form is, I don't really mind." Bill touched the patch, which was white and square-shaped. "I think I'm gonna get a black one. See if I can make it triangular, hm?"

Dipper laughed. "Of course you'd want a triangular one. Hey, are you sure you don't want me to just try and fix it?"

"That'd be really hard to do. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it." Bill took advantage of how close the other was to kiss him. "Have you talked to Mabel lately?"

"Yeah, she's back to doing her normal work in college. But she said she'll come back in December. She said she's gonna send you a bunch of flowers, and hopes you get well soon."

"What a sweetheart." Bill cast around for another topic. "How are Soos and Melody, then?"

"Melody is still doing great, but she's really getting there. The baby is due in November, after all. Early November too, I think."

"Damn, so that's only a few more weeks."

"I know. It's exciting."

"Has she thought of any names yet?"

"Yeah. They really want to name her Carol. They're still deciding on middle names though." Dipper began playing with Bill's hair. "Carol Ramirez. I like how that sounds."

"It is a pleasant name. They should make her middle name William. Just... for no reason."

Dipper laughed. "You would like that, wouldn't you?"

"It's a good name." Bill sighed and shifted. "I can't wait to get out of this stupid bed, it's making my back sore."

"I can't wait until you're back home either." Dipper brushed his lips over Bill's. "I can think of something that'll really make you sore, but in all the best ways."

Bill gave him a cheeky smile as he pecked at his cheek. "Ooh, is that a promise?" One of his hands slid down Dipper's back, unabashedly cupping his rear.

"Mhmm... I'm curious to see how this affects my stamina." Dipper really wished there wasn't a blanket between them, and that Bill didn't currently have bruises and cracked bones.

"Heh... you'll have more energy than you'll know what to do with, I'll tell you that much." Bill was aware of how Dipper wanted to press down on him, and continued to tease him, hand pulling his hips down and forward a bit. "We could probably go for hours. Depending on how much I push this body, that is."

"Mm, we'll definitely have to test it." Dipper felt his wings curl possessively forward, casting the other into shadow. "It's weird, but... you seem more attractive than before, is it... because I'm a demon too?"

"That's exactly it. You're naturally more attracted to me because we're the same kind. So you're really going to want to be intimate with me, and when we do it, you're probably going to lose yourself to the lust. At least the first time. I've told you before, but we experience the Deadly Sins more strongly than any other emotion. So your lust is going to take over in the heat of the moment, and I look forward to seeing how you behave when it does."

This conversation was really making Dipper antsy, but he forced himself to be patient. "Yeah. That should be interesting. Um... how long are you stuck here, again?"

"They said I may be able to leave in two weeks. I'll need to keep physical exertion to a minimum, though."

"Screw that, the moment they let you out of those doors, I'm healing you the rest of the way myself."

"Sounds like a plan." Bill stretched, and said, "Got any plans for today?"

"Besides visiting you? Not really."

"Are you sure? You seem to be thinking about something."

"It doesn't have anything to do with you."

"Everything has something to do with me."

Dipper kissed him before getting up, eyes glowing as his features shifted so that he looked human again. "I'm just gonna surprise a certain someone that we promised a new motorcycle to."

Bill seemed surprised for a moment, then nodded. "Ah yes. Well, tell Gideon I said hi."

Dipper agreed to do so and headed out.

He didn't actually buy an entire new motorcycle, but rather, he obtained the one that Bill had crashed and paid for it to be fixed and repainted, so that it looked essentially brand new again. He drove it up to the car dealership while Gideon was working, waited patiently for him to not have any customers, and then took it right up to him and hopped off.

"Here ya go, good as new," he said.

"My bike!" Gideon wrapped his arms around the handlebars, then coughed and backed away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Um... thanks, Pines. Er, Dipper. Thank you. It looks great."

"I figured you wouldn't want a brand new one, you already seemed to have an attachment to this one, so I got it all fixed up. I put in a new radio, um... it sounds great."

"Yeah, yeah I see that. Thank you very much, I'll just... take this over to the building so it's not in the way." Gideon began walking it over to park it, and Dipper walked with him, not really having anything better to do. "So, how are you doing?"

"I'm all right. Trying to get used to these." Dipper stretched out his wings; he tended to let his demon features show while he was in town. So far, no one has really seemed concerned. He simply explained that he got into some pretty bad magic and this was just how he was now. He could give the full story later.

"Yeah, I reckon they're a handful. Is Bill doing okay?"

"His body is healing. It'll take a while though. He went through a lot."

Gideon nodded. "Yeah, I know. Well, I hope he makes a full recovery."

"He should. If not in the hospital, then I'll fix him up the rest of the way."

"That's good."

"Also, he wanted me to tell you hi."

"Oh. Tell him I said hi back."

"Sure."

"And you're still not going to... I don't know, report me?"

"It'd be kinda hard to prove what you did by now. No, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to forgive you, but I'm going to put the past behind me. Besides, I had some fun a few days ago burning down the house you kept us in."

"Heh. Well I'd rather you burn that place down than my actual house. Hey, I get that you won't forgive me, but I just want to apologize again. I was really awful, but you know what? I'm gonna have to learn to forgive myself, and pray for forgiveness from the Lord as well, and just hope I can find peace."

Dipper squinted, but decided not to comment. "Well, good luck with that. I accept your apology, it doesn't make things better, but I accept it. Stay out of my way and I don't think we'll have any problems."

"Oh, of course. Um, I need to keep an eye out for customers, but thank you again for fixing my motorcycle. I really appreciate it." Gideon held out his hand, and Dipper took it, shaking his hand. Then he turned away and stretched out his wings, limbering them up in preparation to fly.

"No problem. Feel free to stop by the Mystery Shack for one of our magic shows some time... they're apparently pretty entertaining."

"Maybe I will. Bye, Dipper."

"Bye, Gideon." Dipper swung his wings down and took off, kicking up dust with the speed of his flight.

Rather than angle to go toward the Mystery Shack or anywhere into town, he instead kept flying up, closing his eyes and just enjoying the feel of wind rushing through his hair, the cold air surprisingly pleasant against his face. He didn't seem to feel temperature like he used to. He could recognize when it was cold or hot, but it didn't bother him like before.

When he was high enough, he tucked his wings in and went for a free fall, eyes still closed, grinning at the thrill of just tumbling downward through the air with nothing to stop him.

He opened his eyes after a few moments, leaning his head back to check where the ground was. The world spun wildly around him, but he could make out exactly how far away from the ground he was, and knew he had twenty more seconds before he'd have to do anything. He waited, and then turned so his stomach was down, wings spreading out again. There was a tug as the air billowed up underneath them, but he did it carefully, to avoid straining them. In moments, he had caught the air properly and was no longer falling, instead flapping to rapidly ascend once more.

He reached out to Bill with his thoughts, letting him know how much fun he was having, and got an enthusiastic acknowledgment from the other demon. There was a brief magical disturbance, and then he was startled by Bill himself appearing in front of him, in his triangular form of course, glowing brightly and laughing at Dipper's surprise.

Then he flew forward and took his hands, and the two spun around each other as they flew higher and higher, above the clouds, the world falling away below them, but they had eyes only for each other. And unrestricted by something as meaningless as physics, Bill was able to speed their flight beyond what Dipper had been capable of.

"How high can we go?" Dipper called over the rush of wind.

"As high as we want," Bill replied happily. "Neither of us need to breathe oxygen! We can just keep going!"

"Oh, that's right! I don't need to breathe!" Dipper has been breathing anyway, it was unconscious for him, but it occurred to him that of course he didn't have to anymore.

Bill looked up, as they were now high enough to actually make out stars. Then he said, "Remember when I said that we need to dance together more often?"

Dipper nodded. "Of course."

"Well..." Bill gave him a twirl, before pulling him up more quickly, and they could feel minor resistance as they passed through the mesosphere. "What do you say we just keep on flying, so that we can dance to a backdrop of stars?"

Dipper felt his face grow hot, and he leaned forward to press a kiss below the other's eye. "That's the most romantic thing I've ever heard."

"So are you in?" Bill asked with amusement, able to see a reflection of himself in Dipper's eyes and knowing that his body had taken on that ridiculous pink hue it got when he was feeling particularly affectionate.

Dipper squeezed his hands and nodded, pulling him close to himself as he moved his wings down more firmly and they finally made it through the thermosphere. "I'm in."


End file.
